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FACTS FOR THE FEOrLE. 
The various charges against General 

>VI1^I.IAM HENRY HARRISON, 

^ briefly stated and refuted, and some of the 
objections to the present Administration enu- 

merated. 






Soon after General Harrison was nomin- 
al ed for the Presidency by the Harrisburg 
Convention a number of charges were pre- 
ferred against him in the Democratic news- 
papers, with the view of deceiving and 
misleading the people in regard to his char- 
acter. These cliargcs will be briefly stated 
and refuted. 

ABOLITION. 

Some of the Administration presses have 
((uoted the following sentence from one of 
General Harrison's speeches at Cheviot:— 
"Should I be asked if there is no way by 
which the General Government can aid the 
cause of Emancipation, 1 answer that it has 
long been an object near my heart to see the 
whole of its surplus revenue appropria- 
ted to that object." Here the Democratic 
papers, with a view of palming a falsehood 
upon the people, artfully close their quota- 
tion, and unjustly allege that Harrison is an 
Abolitionist. But, in the very next sen- 
tence of the same speech, Gen. Harrison 
says: "With the sanction of the slave holding 
States, there appears to me to be no consti- 
tional objection to its being thus applied, 
embracing not only the colonization of those 
that may be otherwise freed, but the pur- 
chase of the freedom of others.'^ Now it is 
evident, when the whole of Gen. Harrison's 
views in that speech are given, that he only 
desired to see the surplus revenue appropri- 
priated to emancipation, ^'with the mncliun 
uf the slave holding States,'' but without 
their sanction he was not in favor of the 



measure. This, however, the Democratic 
presses choose to keej) out of view and thus, 
with falsehood hypocritically disguised under 
the covering of a distorted quotation from 
one of Gen. Harrison's speeches, they have 
made and repeated a foul charge which can- 
not be sustained. Gen. Harrison has al- 
ways been in favor of emancipation, but he 
never was an abolitionist. If Gen. Harri- 
son's Cheviot speech makes him an abolition- 
ist, then Thomas Jefferson, the great Apos- 
tle of Democracy, was an abolitionist; for, 
in Tucker's Life of Jefferson, Vol. H. page 
466, it is stated that he was in favor of ap- 
propriating THE PUBLIC LANDS to the eman- 
cipation of the slaves and that he regarded 
the result of his project with -'his first en- 
thusiasm." If Mr. Jefferson (whose au- 
thority is sacred with the Democratic party) 
was right in desiring the public lands to be 
appropriated to emancipation, Gen. Harri- 
son could not be wrong in wishing to see 
the surplus revenue appropriated to the same 
object, and Gen. Harrison's measure would 
be the least obnoxious, because the public 
lands were ceded to the Government in or- 
der to the extinguishment of the debts of the 
States, and it might well be doubted wheth- 
er, before the payment of those debts. Con- 
gress would have had the power to adopt Mr. 
Jefferson's views. But General Harrison 
has always been consistent in his opposition 
to the mad schemes of the Northern Aboli- 
tionists. Although he lives in a non-slave- 
holding State, he voted while he was a mem- 
ber of Congress, on the ICth day of Febru- 



4 



persons being discharged from imprison- 
ment according to the provisions of the 
thirty-seventh section of the Act to which 
this is supplementary, if it should be con- 
sidered expedient to grant such discharge. 
Provided that the court in pronouncing sen- 
tence upon any persons convicted under this 
Act, or the Act to which this is supplemen- 
tary, may direct such person or persons to 
be detained in prison until the fine be paid, 
or the person or persons otherwise disposed 
of agreeably to the provisions of this Act." 
To any intelligent and unprejudiced man 
who reads the above law it will be at once 
apparent that the Van Buren presses have 
given it a very unfair construction. They 
assume that Gen. Harrison gave a vote to 
sell free white American citizens as slaves, 
but the law is that they shall be sold as^ serv- 
ants, and that the i-elation which is to exist 
between the person sold and the purchaser 
is to be that of master and servant which is 
the same relation that exists in law between 
an apprentice and the person to whom he is 
bound, a laboring man and the person by 
whom he is hired, a client and the aitorney 
he employs, a clerk and the merchant with 
whom he lives, and the people and their 
public servants of every grade and charac- 
ter. The Van Buren presses also assert that 
General Harrison, when he voted tor the 
above law, voted to sell men /or debt, when 
it is clear thar he only voted to sell a crim- 
inal for a fine and costs imposed by a court 
as a punishment for a criminal oifence. So 
far from voting to sell free white men for 
debt, Gen. Harrison has always been in fa- 
vor of abolishing imprisonment for debt, 
except in cases of fraud, and in his letter of 
the 15th September 1836, to J. H. Pleas- 
ants, he sa)'s that *'it is not a little remarka- 
ble that if the effort I am accused of having 
made to subject men to sale for the non-pay- 
ment of their debts had been successful, I 
7night, from the state of my jjecuniary 
circumstances at the time have been t/ie 
first victim. I repeat, the charge is a vile 
calumny." In the same letter Gen. Harri- 
son shows, from the Senate Journal of the 
2d session of the 19th Congrpss page S25, 



that while he was a member of the Senate 
he voted for a bill to abolish imprisonment 
for debt, and voted for the law to that cfl'ect 
passed at the first session of the 20th Con- 
gress, as appears at pages 101 and 102 of the 
Senate Journal of that session. 

But it is not a little astonishing that the 
partizans who falsely impute to Gen. Har- 
rison a doctrine which he never supported 
and who try to find fault with the above 
vote are the very men, who, through the 
late Van Buren Legislature of Tennessee, 
twice elected the Hon. Felix Grundy to the 
Senate and that too when he voted for a layv 
far more obnoxious than the law of General 
Harrison. By referring to page 79 of the 
Journal of the House of Representatives of 
the Tennessee Legislature for 1824 it will be 
seen that 

•'A bill to restrain idle and disorderly 
persons from running at large was taken up 
on its third and last reading in both houses. 
Mr. Grundy and Mr. Crockett proposed 
amendments to said bill which were adopted. 
Mr. Young moved to strike out that part 
of sail! bill which provides that any person 
pursuing gambling for a livelihojd, pretend- 
ing to feats of balancing on slack wire, rope 
dancing, ventriloquism, or any other exlii- 
bitioji of the like kind, who should be un- 
willing or unable, after the term of ten days 
imprisonment, under the provisions of this' 
bill, to pay the fine and costs by this act 
prescribed shall be sold by the Sheriff to the 
lowest bidder for the line and costs." On 
this motion the yeas and nays were required, 
31 members voting in the affirmative and 
six in the negative, among whom was the 
Hon. Felix Grundy. 

Mr. Grundy voted against striking out 
this section and of course was in favor of 
its becoming a law. The law for which 
Gen. Harrison voted and the law for which 
Mr. Grundy voted each contemplate the 
case of a person imprisoned for a fine and 
costs ^x\^ unable to pay. Now if it is fair to 
say, in construing this law, that General 
Harrison voted to sell free white men for 
debt, it is equally fair to say that Mr. Grun- 
dy voted to sell free white men for debt. 



and that too in a slave State where he would 
be compelled to live witli slaves. Ami 
Grundy's law is much worse tlian General 
Harrison's, because General Harrison's law 
provides that the relation between the pur- 
chaser and personsold shall be that of mas- 
ter and servant, but Mr. Grundy's has no 
such provision. INIr. Grundy's law is un- 
constitutional because it provides that tiie per- 
son shall he snlddb.solulcljj by the Shei'illaiid 
the relation between the purchaser and the 
personsold would under this law, be that of 
MASTER A>'D SLAVE. Geu. Harrisou then 
only voted to sell a criminal as a servant, 
while Mr. Grundy voted to sell him as a 
SLAVE. And yet some of the Van Buren 
men attach great blame to Gen. Harrison 
while they have, by their votes, sui)ported 
JNIr. Grundy. We would earnestly recom- 
mend them first to cast the beam out of their 
own eye before they attempt to take the 
mote out of any body else's eye. 

But Mr. Grundy's law is cruel in the ex- 
treme. It attempted to deprive many per- 
sons of a harmless mode of making a living. 
What great harm is there in balancing-on a 
slack wire? Is it worse than to wrc^ile? or 
in dancing upon a rope'' Is it worse than to 
go a hop, step and jump or to run a foot race? 
Or in the performance of a ventriloquist, 
which is not more hurtful than to tell a good 
anecdote. And yet Mr. Grundy, with 
Pharisaical sanctity, voted to prohibit these 
innocentamusements and thought he ceuUl 
put a stop to them by connecting them with 
the vice of gaming. Will any freeman say 
that a man ought to be sold as a slave, for 
balancing on a slack wire or dancing upon a 
rope? How different is the law for which 
Gen, Harrison voted. It was intended as a 
relief measure. He shows in the letters 
above referred to, that by a former law of 
Ohio, where a person was convicted of a 
criminal oll'ence and was unable to pay the 
fine and costs, he was imprisoned in the 
penitentiary. The object was to amend the 
law by changing the imprisonment in the 
penitentiary to whipping. The section, to 
sell as a servant, w'as introduced in lieu of 
punishment ifi tiie penitentiary and of whip- 



ping, and Gen. Harrison voted [kw it, be- 
lieving that it would be a more humane pun- 
ishment to sell an luifortunate criminal as a 
servant than to subject him to the infamy of 
corporal punishment or to imprisonment in 
the pcnitentiar}'. And \xz leave this subject 
in the confident belief that any rational being,, 
if he were compelled to select the alterna- 
tive, would prefer being sold as a servant to 
some honest man than to be impi'isoned in a 
penitentiary or whipped. 

BATTLE OF TIPPECAIVOE. 

This was, perhaps, the most severely 
contested engagement that ever occurred 
with the Indians. T.hey attacked the troops 
under tren. Harrison's command before day 
and ruslied upon his lines with the utmost 
impeluositv, forcing one or two companies 
to give way before the tremendous fury of 
their onset. Gen. Harrison brought up a 
companj'^ to tiieir rescue and the Indians were 
signally defeated. For the achievment of 
this victory Gen. Harrison was thanked by 
the Legislature of Indiana, through their 
Speaker, on the 12th day of Novr. ISll, 
and by the Legislature of Kentucky on the 
7th day of January 1S12. And President 
Madison in a special message to Congress, 
on the 18th day of December IS 11, in speak- 
ing of this victory, complimented "the 
dauntless spirit of fortitude victoriously dis- 
played by ever}'^ descrijjtion of troops en- 
gaged as well as the collected firmness which 
distinguished THEiii co^tiMXTHDEs. on an oc- 
casion requiring the utmost exertions of valor 
and discipline." Evidence so conclusive, 
furnished soon after the battle occurred and 
when the facts were fresh in the knowledge 
of those who acted upon them, one would 
have supposed would not, after the lapse of 
nearly thirty years, be gravely controverted. 
But it was reserved for the Editor of the 
Baltimore Post and others who were not in 
the battle, to deny the truth of the recorded 
statements of two Legislative Assemblies, 
of the President of the United States and 
the inqiartial page of history. Party ma- 
levolence, in regard to this battle,- has, since 
Gen. Harrison was nominated for President, 



6 



made ihrce charges against him, 1st. That 
the Battle Ground was pointed out 1o him 
by the Indians. 2. That he did not put out 
either a picket or a camp guard and allowed 
himself to be surprised and 3. That not a 
dead Indian was found upon the ground. 

In answer to the first objection, the read- 
er is referred 1st to the 5th edition of Brack- 
enridge's History of the last war, page 24 
and 25 where it is said that the Camping 
ground where the battle occured was select- 
ed, after a careful reconnoisance, by Ma- 
jors Taylor and Clark: 2. To the life of 
Gen. Harrison by Moses Dawson, a Van 
Buren man, written in 1824, at pages 207 — 
8, where he says that the ground was select- 
ed by Majors Taylor and Clark and that 
<'vvhen the army of Gen. Hopkins was there 
in the following year, they all united in the 
opinion that a better spot to resist Indians 
was not to be found in the whole country." 
3. To the Life of Gen. Harrison by Judge 
Hall, another Van Buren man, where the 
same statement is repeated, and 4th. To 
the letter of General Waller Taylor, (who 
is the Major Taylor mentioned in the His- 
tory) addressed lo Moses Dawson, on the 
15th July 1823, in which he states that "the 
Indians did not dictate to the Governor the 
position to encamp the army the night be- 
fore the battle of Tippecanoe," and that 
Major Clark and himself reported to the 
^'Governor (Harrison) our opinion about the 
place which we stated to be favorable for an 
encampment," and that he "believes the 
same opinion was entertained by every offi- 
cer in the army.' 

In answer to the second charge, the offi- 
cial report of General Harrison to the Sec- 
retary of war, published in Niles Register, 
Vol. 1 page 302, states that < 'the Camp was 
defended by two captain's guards con- 
sisting each of four non-commissioned offi- 
cers and forty-two privates and two subal- 
tern's GUAKDSof twenty non-commission- 
ed officers and privates. The whole under 
command of afield officer of the clay." And 
Dawson, in his life of Harrison, at page 
212 states that — "./?// the guards that could 
be used in such a situation, and all such as 



were used by Gen. Wayne were employed 
on this occasion, that is, Camp guards fur- 
nishing' a chain of sentinels aroiuid the 
whole camp at such a distance, as to give 
notice ef the approach of an enemy 'time 
enough for the troops to take their position, 
and yet not so far removed as to prevent 
their retreat in the event of their being over- 
powered by numbers." 

In answer to the charge that Gen. Harri- 
son was surprised at the Battle of Tippeca- 
noe, the reader is referred to the 5th edition 
of Brackenridge's history, to Dawson's life 
of Harrison and to Hall's Life of Harrison, 
each of which states that, when the confer- 
ence which General Harrison had with the 
Indians on the day before the battle termina- 
ted, he told his officers that, from the looks 
and movements of the Indians, he had no 
doubt they intended an attack that night, 
and according to custom, had his troops 
encamped in a hollow square and in order 
of battle, so that they could face the enemy 
at any point. 

In Dawson's Life of Harrison page 229, 
C. Larrabee, an officer who served under 
Gen. Harrison, states that from the time 
Gen. Harrison's army started from Vincen- 
nes into the Indian country, he had his men 
"formed in the order of battle against the 
attack of Indians; that they were never out 
of this situation till they returned;" that the 
army rose from rest and "were ready to re- 
ceive the Indians in two minutes after the 
report of the first fire, and were in line and 

READY TO receive THEM AS THEY CAME 
UP." 

In Dawson'sLife of Harrison page 221— 
2, Joel Cook, a Captain in the 4th Reg. 
Infantry, states that "the position of the 
men during the night, together with myself 
while at rest was laying on our arms with 
our clothes on" and that his men were all 
paraded and at their posts in tiuo minutes. 

In the same work at page 220, Captain 
JosiAH Snelling, (the charge of whose 
company put the Indians to flight and ended 
the battle) states — "General Harrison rode 
up and ordered me to cover the left flank of 
the encampment, where the riflemen of Maj. 



Robb had fallen back. He (Gen. Harri- 
son) rode with the company and pointed 
OUT THE POST / shoulil occiipy. la this 
situation I liad an opportunity to hear the 
order given to Major Davis to charge and 
saw the unfortunate issue of it. The fire 
growing warmer, I asked and General Har- 
rison gave me permission to charge, and I 
am fully confident that evej-y movement of 
my company during the action was .nude 
by his orders in person.^^ 

Eleven of the officers who served in the 
battle of Tippecanoe, viz : — Joel Cook, 
Josiah Snelling, R. C. Barton, 0. G. Bur- 
ton, N. P. Adams, Charles Fuller, A. 
Hawkins, George Gooding, H. Burchstead, 
Josiah D. Foster, and Hosea Blood, publish- 
ed a statement after the battle in which they 
say that General Harrison, <' throughout the 
campaign and in the hour of battle, proved 
himself the soldier and the General ; that on 
the i.ight of the action, by his order we slept 
on our arms and rose on our posts ; that not- 
withstanding the darkness of the night and 
the most consummate savage cunning of the 
enemy, in eluding our sentries and rapid- 
ly in rushing through the guards we were 
not found unprepared ; that i&w of them 
were enabled to enter our camp and those 
few doomed never to return ; that in pursu- 
ance of his orders, which were adapted to 
every emergency, the enemy were defeated 
with a slaughter almost unparalleled among 
savages." 

The charge that " not a dead Indian 
was found on the battle f eld of Tippecu- 
7ioe" is falsified by Gen. Harrison's Report 
to the Secretary of War, (Niles Register, 
page 304, Vol. 1.) where he says that "the 
Indian's left from thirty-six to forty on the 
field." This statement is confirmed by 
Dawson at page 216 of his work where he 
says that " the Indians left thirty-eight 
warriors dead on the field and buried several 
others in the town, which, with those who 
must have died of their wounds would make 
their loss at least as great as that of the 
Americans." 

All the slanders in regard to the glorious 
achievement at Tippecanoe are thus nailed to 



the counter by evidence so conclusive that it 
requires no comment. 

THE KIVER RATSIIV. 

It was charged in the Baltimore Post, 
and the charge has been reiterated at Demo- 
cratic meetings and by Van Buren stump 
orators, that Gen, Harrison allowed 500 
brave Kentuckians to be sacrificed at the 
River Raisin to his jealous hatred of Gen. 
^Vinchester. 

It is not denied that Gen. Winchester sur- 
rendered to the British and Indians at the 
River Raisin and that hundreds of Ken- 
tucky's bravest and most gallant soldiers fell 
in the battle and after the surrender were 
butchered in cold blood by the Indians. — 
But Gen. Harrison is not responsible for it. 
Impartial history has ascribed the blame — if 
blame should rest any where — to the rash- 
ness of Gen. Winchester and to his jeal- 
ousy of Gen. Harrison. Before the battle 
of the River Raisin Gen. Harrison had 
formed the plan of a campaign against the 
British and Indians in Canada and was mak- 
ing his preparations to carry it into effect. — 
Gen. Winchester, without apprising Gen. 
Harrison of his intention, and without giv- 
ing Harrison the slightest opportunity to as- 
sist him if it was necessary marched his 
troops to the River Raisin and was defeated 
before it was possible for Gen. Harrison to 
assist him, although the latter, notwith- 
standing the disobedience of Winchester, 
used every exertion in his power to assist 
him. 

In the 5th Edition of Brackenridge's His- 
tory at page 87, it is stated that the move- 
ment of Winchester was made " contrary 
to the general plan of the campaign." 

Gen. M'Afee, a Van Buren man, wha 
also wrote a History of the last War, states 
in his work " that Gen. Harrison is not an- 
swerable for the advance of the detachment,, 
fo the River Raisin. It was sent by Gen. 
Winchester, without the knowledge or 
consent of Harrison, and contrary to his- 
views and plans for the future conduct of 
the campaign, and to the instructions com- 
municated with his plans through Ensiga 



8 



Todd bcCore the left wing had marched lor 
llie Rapids." 

The same writer also .shows that when 
Gen. Harrison, ))veviousto the battle of the 
River Raisin, received information indi- 
rectly that Gen. Winchester ":jeditated 
SOME UNK?;owN MOVEMENT " agaiasE the 
enemy, he was so anxious to prevent him 
from nriUinsit without the proper assistance, 
thata1lhouo;h he was then "between sixty 
and seventy-six miles from the R^i^pids, and 
idjout thirty-eii^ht more Irom the River Rai- 
sin" he immediately sent an express to the 
Rapids for information, gave ordes for a 
corps of 300 men to advance with the ar- 
tillery and escorts to proceed with provis- 
ions, and in the morning he proceeded him- 
self to Lower Sandusky, at which place he 
arrived in the night (ollowing, a distance ot 
forty miles whivdi he traveled in seven hours 
and a half, over roads requiring such exer- 
tion that the horse of his aid, Major HakfU, 
fell dead on their arrival at the fort." — 
"Gen. Harrison then determined to pro- 
ceed to the Rapids himself to learn person- 
ally from Gen. Winchester his situation and 
views." Understanding that Winchester 
had sent a detachment to the River Raism 
and that some bkirn.i'^hing liad occurred, 
McAfee, the historian fur;lier states, that 
Gen. Harrison v/as so anxious ''to prevent 
or remedy any misfortune which miglit oc- 
cur," ' ' that he started in a sleigii with Gen . 
Perkins to overtake the battalhon under 
Cot<Treve attended by a single servant. As 
the Sleigh went very slow, from the rough- 
ness of the road, he took the horse ot his 
servant and pushed on alone. I^ight came 
upon him in the midst of the swamp which 
was so imperfectly frozen that his horse 
sunk to his belly at every step. He had no 
resource but to dismount and lead his horse, 
jumping himself from one sod to another 
which was solid enough to support hum- 
When almost exhausted he met one of tot- 
grevc's men coming back to look ior his bay- 
onet and by his aid was enabled to reach tl^o 
camp of the Battalion. Harrison arrived 
at the Rapids very early next morning, but 
Winchester had gone and he could now do 



nothing more than wait the arrival of rein- 
forcements from Lower Sandusky. " In- 
stead of censure, (continues McAfee,) be- 
ingdue to Harrison, he merits praise for 
his prudent exertions from the moment he 
was apprised of Gen. Winchester's arrival 
at the Rapids." 

Another infamous charge of a lying Bal- 
timore editor is thus ^^ used up" by proof 
so clear that "hethat runs may read." 

DEFEr^CE OF FORT STEPHENSON. 

A letter addressed by Gen. Joseph Dun- 
can Governor of Illinois, to Mr. Preston, 
under date 26th March 1836, has been pub- 
lished in the Nashville Union and other 
Democratic papers in this State with the 
view to disparage Gen. Harrison, in regard 
to the defence of Fort Stephenson on the 
Lower Sandusky by Major Croghan. In 
this letter the following facts are sUited. 1st. 
^ 'That about the 20th July 1813, Gen. Har- 
rison, then at Lower Sandusky, hearing that 
the British Army had crossed Lake Erie to 
Fort Meio-s, being about 5000 strong, chan- 
ged his h?ad quarters to Seneca, seven or 
eio-ht miles up the Sandusky river, where he 
assembled his forces, then on the march 
from the interior, leaving Major Croghan 
with about 150 men to defend Fort Stephen- 
son, with an understanding at the time that 
the fort, then in a weak and wretched con- 
dition, was to be abandoned, should the en- 
emy advance with artillery, but it not, to be 
defended to the last extremity. 2. It is 
stated in said letter that Harrison's force was 
then small, and in Hall's Life of Harrison it 
is said that his whole force did not then 
amount to 1000 men. 3. That on hearmg 
the enemy had raised the siege at Fort Meigs 
and had started in the direction ol Sandusky 
and Can.p Seneca, Gen. Harrison ordered 
Croohan to abandon the fort, burn the muni- 
tions and stores and retreat to Head_ Quar- 
ters 4 That Gen. Harrison had intend- 
ed to retreat and to burn his supplies but did 
not do so HI consequence of 1 be refusal ot 
Croghan to obey his order. 5. 1 hat Crog- 
han "allantlv and successfully defended the 



9 



fort against the whole British army. And 
6. That neither Gen. Harrison nor any one 
with him doubted for a moment that the 
garrison would be cut off, and that General 
Harrison was heard to say, during the siege, 
when the Hring could be heard in his camp, 
speaking of Croghan, "the blood be on his 
own head, I wash my hands of it." 

Upon this letter, to which a verj'^ unfair 
construction has been given, two charges 
are preferred by some of the Democratic 
papers and stump orators against Gen. Har- 
rison. 1st. That he betrayed a want of 
military courage and skill in designing to 
retreat and 2d. That he should liave gone 
to the assistance of Croghan when the at- 
tack was made. In answer to the first ob- 
jection, the reader is referred to the Life of 
Harrison written by Judge Hall, (another 
Van Buren man,) and published in 1S36, 
where, from pages 245 to 255 the follow- 
ing facts are shown : — 

1st. That the British and Indian force was 
five times as great as the force under Gen. 
Harrison's command and that his determina- 
tion to retreat was a prudential measure 
which met the sanction of all his officers in a 
council of war, with General Lewis Cass 
(Gen. Jackson's Secretary of War and Mr. 
Van Buren's present Minister to France) at 
their head. 2. That the order which Gen. 
Harrison sent to Croghan to abandon the 
fort was not received, until a day after Gen. 
Harrison intended it should be received, 
owing to the fact that the enemy were post- 
ed in the neighborhood and the express had 
to travel by a circuitous route. 3d. That, 
after Gen. Harrison had Croghan arrested, 
he reinstated him in the command because 
Croghan made explanations that were satis- 
factory and showed that he had put the 
fort in a better condition for defence than it 
was in when Gen. Harrison left it and that 
he expected the answer he wrote to Gen. H. 
would fall in the hands of the enemy. 4th. 
That 2000 Indians were posted in ambus- 
cade between Camp Seneca, where General 
Harrison was, and Fort Stephenson where 
Croghan was, and the former, whose force 



was not half so large as that of th6 Indians, 
could not have gone to the relief of the lat- 
ter without hazarding the safety of his 
whole army, which would doubtless have 
been attacked by the whole British and Indi- 
an force, the attack on Fort Stephenson be- 
ing intended only as a feint to draw Gener- 
al Harrison from Camp Seneca. 

But this is not all. Major Croghan him- 
self, who was so bravely and unexpectedly 
successful, published a letter on the 27th 
August 1813, (see Hall's Life of Harrison 
page 250,) in which he says that the letter 
he wrote to Gen. Harrison, was received by 
him contrary to his expectations J that after 
Gen. Harrison reinstated him in the com- 
mand, the last order he gave was the same 
as the first, to effect a retreat if he could do 
so, but if he could not retreat with safety to 
defend the post to the last extremity. Maj 
Croghan further states that "it is useless to 
disguise the fact that this fort is commanded 
by the points of high groujid around it''—' 
thus proving the correctness of Gen. Harri- 
son's view that it could not have been de- 
fended against artillery ; and towards the 
conclusion of his letter, he stated that " his 
confidence in Gen. Harrison as an able 
comrnander reynains unshaken.'' In ad- 
dition to this, fourteen' of the field officers 
then under Gen. Harrison's command, with 
Gen. Lewis Cass at their head, publish- 
ed a letter on the 29th August 1813 (see 
Hall's Life of Harrison page 255) in which 
they say that "on a review of the course 
then adopted, they are decidedly of the 
" opinion that it was such as was dictated by 
" military wisdom and by a due regard to 
" our own circumstances and the situation 
* ' of the enemy. 

If Gov. Duncan had intended to make an 
accusation against Gen. Harrison in relation 
to this affair, it is believed that the evidence 
of fourteen field officers, backed by the state- 
ment of Maj. Croghan himself, would be suf- 
ficient to outweigh the testimony of Gov. 
Duncan who was then only an ensign under 
Maj. Croghan. But to put this charge for- 
ever at rest in the mind of every honest man^ 



10 



it is only necessary to add that, on the 10th 
day of February 1840, Gov. Duncan made 
a speech, at Jacksonville Illinois, in which 
he stated his determination heartily to sup- 
port the nomination of Harrison and Tyler ; 
explained his letter to Col. Preston, which 
he states was "repeatedly published in 1836 
iviih an altered dale and such comments 
as to induce a belief that it was intended 
by him as an attack upon Gen. Harrison, 
when no such thing was ever intended, nor 
does the letter in the slightest degree de- 
tract from the General's conduct on the 
occasion," which w^s ^^ ivise prudent and 
strictly military , such, as met the appro- 
bation of his ai'my, ivhich approval ivas 
expressed by every officer in his camp in a 
publication made hy them at the time J' 
Gov. Duhcan further stated in his speech 
that, "as a brave soldier, a successful and 
accomplished commander, Gen. Harrison 
was not inferior to any officer in service. — 
lie admitted that the battle of New Orleans 
was the most brilliant achievment won by 
our armies during the late war, but, said he, 
it must be remembered that Gen. Harrison 
gained his victories over the best equipped, 
most warlike and numerous bands of savages 
in America, and in their own country whicli 
was nearljMf not quite as difficult to march 
troops over at that time as that of Florida, 
is at the present moment." 

BATTLE OF THE THAMES. 

Some of the Democratic Orators in Ten- 
nessee have had the impudence to tell the 
people that Tol. Johnson fought this battle; 
that Gen. Harrison was not in the engage- 
ment, and that after it was over, he halted 
two da5^s and then only renewed the pursuit 
after Slielby and Johnson urged him to do 
so. 

Gov. Slielby (who was the Hero of King's 
Mountain) in a letter addressed by him to 
Gen. Harrison, on the 21st April 1816, and 
published in the Richmond Enquirer of 6 
Feb. 1817, states that the rej)ort that -^Gen. 
Harrison was forced to pursue Proctor from 
his remonstrances is false— that no such lan- 



guage ever passed from him to Gen. Harri- 
son and that he entertained throughout the 
campaign too higlian opinion of General 
Harrison^ s military talents to doubt for 
amotnent his capacity to conduct the ar- 
my to the best advantage. ''"' Gov. Shelby 
bears the strongest testimony throughout his 
whole letter to Gen. Harrison's intrepid 
braver)^ and accomplished skill and, address- 
sing Gen. Harrison, in conclusion he says 
— " Until after I had served the campaign 
of 1813, I was not aware of the difficulties 
which you had to encounter as commander 
of the Northwestern Army. I have since 
often said and still do believe that the duties 
assigned to you on that occasion were more 

ARDUOUS AND DIFFICULT TO ACCOMPLISH 
THAN ANY I HAD EVER KNOWN CONFIDED 

TO ANY COMMANDER, and with respect to 
the zeal and lideiity with which you executed 
that high and important trust, there ai'e thou- 
sands in Kentucky as well as myself, who 
believe it could not have been committed 
to better hands." 

Who will dare to dispute the evidence of 
old Isaac Shelby, the undaunted and renown- 
ed hero of two wars ? None but the lying 
minions of power '*who love darkness rather 
than light because their deerls are evil." 

But to show that the brilliant victory of 
the Thames was gained by Gen. Harrison's 
skill as a commander, combined with the 
bravery of his men, the candid reader is re- 
ferred to Hall's Life of Harrison page 279 — 
where it is said that, after both armies were 
formed in order of battle, "Col. Wood re- 
ported to Gen. Harrison that he had recon- 
noitered the ememy and found their regular 
infantry formed in opeii order. Proctor 
had probably heard that mode of formation 
was practised by us in fighting tlie Indians 
and had misapplied the principle. He had 
committed an egregious error and Harrison 
instantly availed himself of it. Aware that 
troops in open order, that is with intervals 
of three or four leet between the files, could 
not resist a charge of mounted men he di- 
rected Col. Johnson to dasli through the 
enemy's line in column. The experiment 



11 



was made witli brilliant success. The moun 
led men charjijcd with case t,hroM2;li the ranks 
of the enemy, formed in their rear and as- 
sailed their broken line. The battle was 
gained. No sooner was their line broken 
than the British began to tlirow down their 
arms and a victory, almost bloodless on our 
part, »'as obtained by the consummafeability 
witli which the cominantler in chief wieKled 
his forces and the rapidity witli whicli he 
took advantage of the mistakes of his adver- 
sary.'' 

The above statement is confirmed by the 
followin": livinq; witnesses. John Cham- 
BERS. in a letter addressed to Moses B. Cor- 
win Esq. on the 24th Feb. IS 10, states that 
he acted as a volunteer Aid-de-camp to Gen. 
Harrison in the battle of the Thames and 
was at no time more tlian five minutes out 
of sight of him on the day of the battle, — 
He says that Gen. Harrison's official account 
of the battle is correct and that the Gen, 
might have stated with equal truth that '"he, 
Gen. H., i7i person gxve the word of com- 
mand to the mounted regiment to charge and 
that he advanced with it until it received the 
enemy's fire and then passed rapidly to the 
left where ihe Indians still obstinately main- 
tained the fight." Mr. Chambers further 
states that the idea of charging the enemy 
with the mounted men was exclusively 
Gen. Harrison's. I was present when he 
announced it and know that Col. Johnson 
was then at tlie head of his command and 
was not consulted on the subject until Gen. 
Harrison had expressed his determination to 
make the charge." 

J. 0. Fallon, who was a regular Aid- 
de-camp of Gen. Harrison in the battle of 
the Thames and served with him in all his 
battles states, in a letter dated at St. Louis 
Feb. 26th 1S40, — "I was in a few feet of 
(ien. Harrison when the report of Col. Wood 
was made and he instantly remarked that 
he would make a novel movement. He or- 
dered Col. Johnson's mounted regiment to 
charge the line of the British regulars." — 
He states further — " I know that all the 
arrangements and every movement of the 



troops during the battle was made by order 
of Gen. Harrison, whose position at the 
commenemcnt of the action was just in rear 
of Col. Johnson's command and mainly af- 
terwards near the crotchet formed by the 
junction of Johnson's left with the Kentucky 
volunteers, drawn up on the edge and in 
front of the swamp, a position considered 
by all the most exposed and dangerous 
ivithin the lines of our army, and wiiere 
the battle was warmly contested by the 
Indians, until they discovered the surrender 
of the whole British regular force ; the hap- 
py result of the novel andskilful movement, 
most gallantly performed by Col. Johnson 
and his brave associates, but conceived, plan- 
ned and directed by Gen. Harrison whose 
superior military judgment and ready skill 
neither needed nor received any aid.'' 

C. S, Todd, who was a Captain in the 
United States Army and acted as a regular 
Aid-de-camp to Gen. Harrison in the battle 
of the Thames, says, in a letter dated Cin- 
cinnati 2Slh February IS to — that " Gen. 
Harrison gave the word of command to the 
mounted regiment to charge, he, having 
with his aids-de-camp passed from the right 
of the line of infantry to the right of the 
front of the mounted column, and not only 
ordered the charge to be made by pronoun- 
cing the word but called upon his aids to 
repeat and pass the vv'ord along the line. — 
/ ivas close by his side and lie was so 
near the enemy that their fire cut down 
the leaves and twigs of the trees above our 
heads.'' 

J. Speed Smith, a Van Buren man, who 
was another of Gen. Harrison's Aids in the 
Battle of the Thames, makes the following 
statement, in a letter dated Richmond March 
6th 1840. — "Col. Johnson received orders 
as to the form and manner ol charge from, 
Gen. HarrisoR in person, in the face and al- 
most in sight of the enemy. The General 
was witli the rpgiment when the charge was 
soundeil. As Johnson moved to the charge, 
the Gen. started for the line of Infantry 
which was drawn up in order of battle. He 
had not gone far, before turning to me (and 



12 



to the best of my recollection, I was the on- 
ly one of his aids then with him) he said, 
'* Pursue Col. Johnson with your utmost 
speed — see the effect of his charge and the 
position of the enemy's artillery and return 
as quickly as possible." Having executed 
this order as promptly as practicable, I met 
him on my return, presshig/orward loith 
the front of the infantry. Upon reporting 
that Col. Johnson had broke the enemy's 
line — that they were surrendering and that 
their cannon was in our possession, he ex- 
claimed in an animated tone, <* Come on'* 
my brave felloivs, Proctor and his whole 
army will soon be ours /" Soon after this, 
an officer, (I believe the late Judge John 
McDowell of Ohio) rode up and reported 
that the left wing at or near the crotchet, 
was suffering severely and in great disorder. 
This communication was made in the hear- 
ing of the soldiers. The General contra- 
dicted the latter part of the statement in the 
most emphatic manner — but giving order to 
the next in command to push forward, he 
dashed with the messenger to Die indicated. 
point of conflict and confusion and found 
the contest pretty close and severe. A por- 
tion of Johnson's regiment, owing to the im- 
practicability of the ground for horse, had 
dismounted and was fighting on foot and 
mingled with the infantry, which had been 
to some extent, the cause of the confusion. 
Order was soon restored and the left wing 
closed to the front (which formed the crotch- 
et) UNDER THi^ perso?ial supervision of Gen. 
Harrison. In the mean time, some of our 
soldiers were shot within less than ten feet 
of the Ge7iej'al, for the conflict here was 
sharp and animated and continued so for 
sometime. With the exception of the charge 
made by Col. Johnson's regiment. Gen. 
Harrison was in the tnost exposed and 
dangerous parts of the battle.^'' 

This evidence contains in itself its own 
best commentary and leaves not a doubt in 
any honest breast. To crown the whole on 
the 4th of April 1818, a resolution intro- 
duced by Mahlon Dickerson, Gen. Jackson's 
Secretary of the Navy, was passed by both 



Houses of Congress, (unanimously in the 
Senate and with but one dissenting voice in 
the House) and approved by President Mon- 
roe, thanking Gen. Harrison and Gov. Shel- 
by and the officers and men under their 
command ''for tlieir gallantry and good con- 
duct in defeating the combined British and 
Indian forces under Maj. General Proctor on 
the Thames in Upper Canada on the 5th day 
of October 1813, capturing the British Army 
with their baggage, camp equipage and ar- 
tillery, and requiring the President of the 
United States to cause two gold med- 
als to be struck emblematical of this triumph 
and presented to General Harrison and 
Isaac Slielby, late Governor of Ken- 
tucky." 

After reading the united testimonials of 
those who certainly know more about the 
victory of the! hames than Baltimore edi- 
tors and Tennesssee stump orators who were 
not in tlie battle, can credulity itself hesitate 
to pronounce the charges made against Gen. 
Harrison the basest calumnies that ever were 
written by the pen of man or pronounced by 
the human voice ? 

GEi\. HARRISON'S RESIGNATION. 

At a Democratic meeting held in a vil- 
lage in East Tennessee the following resolu- 
tion was adopted. 

" Resolved, that we have no confidence 
whatever in the military skill or bravery of 
an officer who would resign his command in 
the midst of the war, at the darkest most 
gloomy and most bloody period of it, when 
the greatest necessity existed for his military 
services, and that Gen. Harrison in tender- 
ing his resignation at such a time, affords 
ample testimony that he is neither a 
true patriot or a brave soldier." 

The reasons for lien. Harrison's resig- 
nation will be briefly stated. Pie was at that 
time the only General who, after the com- 
mencement of the last war, had achieved a 
victory Hull had basely and ignobly sur- 
rendered in Canada and Gen. Jackson had 
not then fought any of his brilliant battles in 
the South. Gen. Harrison had already a- 



13 



chleved a victory in Canada and was the offi- 
cer to whom tlie next expedition against Can- 
ada ought to have been assigned. But in- 
stead of assigning the command to Harrison, 
the Secretary of War called General Wil- 
kinsony>om the South — a man who had ac- 
quired no laurels during that war — and placed 
him at the head of the Army, to the great 
dissatisfaction of the soldiers who had serv- 
ed under Gen. Harrison. (See Bracken- 
ridges History 5lh ed. p. 159.) The Sec- 
retary of War also assigned to Gen. Harrison 
the command of the district in vvhicii Ohio 
was included — a district where no fighting 
was to be done — a district from which Gen. 
Harrison had already bravely driven the 
British and Indians — a district where, too, 
he would be drawing pay as a General with- 
out rendering any actual service. Nor was 
this all. The Secretary of War carried his 
petty malice against Gen. Harrison so far as 
to assign to adjutant Holmes, a subordinate 
officer under Gen. Harrison, a separate com- 
mand within his district and to correspond 
directly with him. (See Hall's Life of Har- 
rison p. 283-4.) Every body knows and 
admires the elevated pride wliich prevails 
among high minded military men. Gen. 
Jackson, who was a Maj. General of the 
Tennessee militia, refused to accept the rank 
of Brigadier in the United States Army, be- 
cause he considered the station inferior to the 
one he held, and by his refusal compelled 
the Government to confer upon hini the rank 
of a Major General in the army of the U. S. 
Generaljackson was as punctilious in matters 
of military etiquette as any man ever was and 
always scorned to be trammelled by instruc- 
tions that he considered dishonorable And 
Gen, Harrison, actuated by the same honor- 
able feeling, scorned the insult offered to 
him by the Secretary of war and resigned 
his commission. 

When old Isaac Shelby, that sterling pa- 
triot who fought in the Revolutionary as 
well as in the last war, heard of Gen. Harri- 
son's resignation, having fought by his side 
and knowing the value of his sei-vices, he 
addressed a letter to President Madison ur- 



ging hiin not to accept the resignation. In 
that letter he tells the President. •' I fed 
no hcsitalion to declare to yon that I be- 
lieve Gen. Harrison to be one of the first 
mUitary characters I ever knew, and in 
addition this, he is capable of makina; 
greater personal exertions than any offi- 
cer with lohom I ever served.^'' Mr. 
Madison when this letter reached Wash- 
ingtun, and at the time when Gen. Harri- 
son's letter of resignation was received, was 
absent on a visit to Virginia. The Secretary 
of War took it upon himself to receive the 
resignation without consulting the President, 
and Mr. Madison afterwards expressed his 
regret that Gov. Shelby's letter had not 
reached him atan earlier period. [See Hall's 
Life of Harrison p. 2S.3-4.] 

And who, let us ask, was the Secretary 
of War whose malice caused him so insul- 
tingly and unjustly to treat Gen. Harrison ? 
Why, he was a man who had spent a consid- 
erable part of his time in Europe. [See 
Brackenridges Historj'^ page 158.] He was 
the author of the celebrated Newburg Let- 
ters which were \vritten about the close of 
tlie Revolutionary War for the treasonable 
purpose of exciting the officers to deeds of 
violence against their country and against 
the great and good Washington or any body 
else who might oppose them. Gen. Wash- 
ington, in speaking of these letters, to a con- 
vention of these officers, says, in quoting from 
the writer. 

" If peace takes place, never sheath your 
swords, says he [Gen. Armstrong ] until 
you have obtained full and ample justice. — ■ 
This dreadful alternative [says Gen. Wash- 
ington] of either deserting our country in 
the extremest hour of her distress, or turning 
our arms against it, which is the apparent 
object, unless Congress can be compelled 
into instant compliance, has something so 
shocking in it that humanity revolts at the 
idea. My God [continues Gen. Washington] 
what can this writer have in view by recom- 
mending such measures, in either alterna- 
tive impracticable in their nature." 

The officers'of the Army unanimously re- 



14 



solved that l.liey "viewed with abhorencc 
and rej'^.cted with disdain the infamous prop- 
ositions contained" in tlie Newburg letters 
ofvehicli Gen Armstron}«, has since acknowl- 
edged himself to have been the author. 

What was the result of Gen. Armstrong's 
preference of Gen. Wilkinson to Gen. Har- 
rison as the Commander of the expedition 
against Canada ? It is shown in Bracken- 
ridge's History that, notwithstanding our 
Government had incuired immense expense 
in prepai-ing for the invasion of Canada, and 
altho' public opinion elated by the victory 
of the Thames and the successes of our in- 
trepid seamen on the Lakes, anticipated the 
most brilliant conquests, Gen. Wilkinson 
was compelled to retire from Canada without 
striking a single blow towards the accom- 
plishment of the objects of the campaign. — 
This clearly demonstrated the stupidity, not 
to say the criminal culpability of the Secre- 
tary of War. Had Gen: T^^^arrison been ap- 
pointed to the command, the result would no 
doubt have contributed to the glory of our 
arms and the extent of our possessions. His 
whole military career had been run in the 
North. He was familiar with the state of 
things in Canada and would have known 
better how to proceed than Gen. Wilkinson 
who was suddenly called from the South and 
could not have had half the knowledge pos- 
sessed by Harrison either in relation to 
the. country or the movements to be made 
in it. 

But this is not all. Gen. Armstrong is 
the same man whose duty it was, as Secre- 
tary of War, to see that the country was pre 
pared to defend itself at all points of attack 
but he was so negligent as to allow the Brit- 
ish to march through the very heart of it, 
to take Washington City and to inflict upon 
our Nation the disgrace of burning its capitol. 
But an indignant and outraged people would 
not always submit to his blunders. Popular 
indignation was so much excited that Gen. 
Armstrong, the very man who had mali- 
ciously and criminally accepted General 
Harrison's resignation, was h'lmseU cofJipc/- 
kd to resign the office of Secretary of War. 



[See Brackenridgc!? History 5th ed. page 
254.] 

In reviewing this subject no high minded 
man, it is believed, will censure Gen. Har- 
rison for his course, while suspicions of the 
darkest character must always attach to the 
Secretary of War, for his conduct in assign- 
ing Harrison to the command where no 
fighting was to be done. May it not be 
that Mr. Secretary Armstrong was secretly 
under British influence ? May it not be 
tiiat he was playing into the hands of our 
enemies and was fearful that the bravery and 
vigilance of Harrison would defeat their de- 
signs^against our country. Let it be remem- 
bered that Gen. Armstrong spent several 
3'ears in Europe — that he wrote the Newburg 
letters, the apparent object of which Gen. 
Washington said was "to induce the officers 
to desert their country in the extremest hour 
of her distress or to turn their arms against 
it" — let it be recollected that he was com- 
pelled to resign because of the popular indig- 
nation on account of his failure to place 
Washington City in an attitude of defence — 
and who must not suspect that the man who 
would advise the soldiers of Washington to 
desert their country or to turn their arms 
against it, and who would allow the Capitol 
of the Nation to he burnt may, in his treat- 
ment of Gen. Harrison, have been actuated 
by a desire to favor the enemies of our coun- 
try .'' Nothing could have benefitted the 
enemy more than to order a successful and 
accomplished General to the station to which 
Harrison was ordered, so as to keep him out 
of the way, and to place a man at the head 
of the army who was'incapable of coming up 
to public expectation and made a total failure 
in the expedition. 

THE PETTICOAT FALSEHOOD. 

It has been repeatedly stated, both in the 
press and by the Van Buren speakers, that 
the ladies of Chilicothe voted a sword to 
Major Croghan and to Gen. Harrison a pet- 
ticoat. At some of the Democratic meetings 
in Tennessee resolutions were adopted call- 
ing Gen. Harrison "an old Granny" — "a 



15 



petticoat general" — and "oncof the most dis- 
tinguiv'hed ladies that adorns the nineteenth 
century." As we have reason to believe 
that many honest Democrats who joined in 
the adoption of these resolutions were im- 
posed u])on by the falsehoods contained in 
the Democratic papers, and that they are 
now heartily ashamed of their agency in 
giving currency to these slanders, we for- 
bear to give their names or to make a par- 
ticular reference to their proceedings. Suf- 
fice it to say, that Judge Burnett of Ohio, a 
distinguished citizen who was for a longtime 
one of the Judges of the Supreme Court in 
that State, in a speech delivered by him at 
the Harrisburg Convention, pronounced the 
petticoat story "an infamous slander of Gen. 
Harrison and a base insult to the ladies of 
Chilicothe." 

In tracing this slander to its origin, we 
are informed that it was told by a Maj. Allen, 
[now a Van Buren Senator in Congress'from 
Ohio,] at a public meeting held in Colum- 
bus in 1836. On the 30th of January 1836, 
Major Generid James T. Worthington pub- 
lished a card in the Sciota Gazette a Chil- 
icothe paper, in which he pronounced the 
statement a miserable fabrication, and also 
added : 

*' In order to sustain my own recollec- 
tions, I have inquired of a number of the 
oldest and of the most respectable residents 
of our town, of both sexes and of all jjolitical 
pai-ties, as to the truth of this report [which 
I will not sully my paper by copying] and 
have uniformly received the reply that it is 
entirely false and unfounded." 

In the same paper Brigadier Gen. W, S. 
Murphy [under whom Allen was a Major] 
published the following card : 

" To Major Allen, 
Sir: I publish you as a liar and a scoun- 
drel for having slated to a public assembly 
at Columbus on the Sth of January 1836, 
that the ladies of Ciiilicothe voted Gen. Har- 
rison a petticoat, as a reward for his military 
services. 

W. S. MURPIIY.»' 
So far as we know. Major Allen never 



attempted the slightest vindicntioa of hi-i 
statement, but remains to this day branded 
asaliar and a scoundrel. VVc sincerely be- 
lieve that no honest or intelligent Democrat 
who is acquainted with these facts will dis- 
grace himself by giving either credence or 
currency to the statement of a man having 
this mark of infamy attacliedto him in his 
own town and at his own door. 

VOTE OF THE SEiVATE. 

It has been publisiicd that, on the 16th 
day of July 1816, Gen. Harrison wrote a 
letter which was published in Niles' Register 
in which he said, " A vote of the United 
States Senate has attached to my niime a 
disgrace which I am convinced no efforts of 
mine will ever be able to efface. Their 
censure is indeed negative but it is not on 
that account the less severe." 

It may be that Gen. Harrison wrote this 
letter, but under what circumstances did he 
write it ? A resolution had been reported 
to the Senate by the Committee on Military 
affairsof which Mr. James Barbour of Vir- 
ginia was Chairman, to thank Gen. Harrison 
and Gov. Shelby for the achievement of the 
victory of the Thames. The resolution was 
discussed in the Committee of the whole, 
separated from the responsible action of the 
Senate itself, and when the vote was first ta- 
ken a majority in the Senate were in favor 
ofstrikingout the name of Gen. Harrison. 
It was probably at this time Gen. Harrison 
wrote the letter now quoted by his enemies. 
But when the Senate came to vote upon the 
resolution a majority of one in that body, on 
the ayes and noes being taken, refused to 
strike out the name of Gen. Harrison, and 
afterwards, on the 20th of April 1816, the 
Senate recommitted the report to the Com- 
mittee on Military alTairs for further consiil- 
eration. 

And why was ii that the Senate was sO' 
closely divided in regard to the vote of thanks 
to General Harrison? Mr. C. Gushing, a 
representative in Congress from Massachu- 
setts, in two letters published by him in the 
National Intelligencer, tiie one dated Mth 



16 



.March 1840, and the olhcr dated April 2, 
1840, explains from theJournahs and records 
of the country, the whole transaction. He 
shows, in suhsiance, that the reason why 
the Senate refused to give Gen. Harrison a 
vote of thanks was that Gen. Harrison had 
heen charged hy persons concerned in some of 
of the Army contracts for the supply of the 
Northwestern army, with improper conduct 
in the management of thatbnsiness. As this 
charge had heen made against Gen. H. some 
of the Senators were unwilling to vote in 
favor of the resolution of thanks, until it 
was explained. And how did Gen. Harrison 
act? "So soon as the charge was publicli/ 
made by the persons in question, he addres- 
sed a letter to the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives, demanding generally in- 
vestigation of hiseonduct as to the expendi- 
tures in the eighth Military District while 
under his command, which letter is to be 
found in the National Intelligencer of the 
22nd March 1816." The whole matter was 
first investigated by the War Department 
whose "answer caine in at the beginning of 
the next session of Congress" and it being 
referred to a select committee of the House 
of Representatives of which Colonel R. M. 
Johnson, now vice President of the United, 
States, was Chairman, that committee made 
a report, on the 23rd day of January 1817 
in which they staled that "the Committee 
are UNANIMOUSLY of opinion that Gen. W^v- 
r'lson stands above . suspicion as to his hav- 
ing had any pecuniary or improper connex- 
ion with the officers of the commissariat for 
the supply of his army; that he did not wan- 
tonly or improperly interfere with the rights 
of the contractors; and that, in his whole 
conduct, as the commander of said army, he 
was governed by a laudable zeal for, and 
devotion to, the public service and inter- 
est." On the yist of March 1818, James 
Barbour of Virginia delivered a speech in 
the House in which he stated, in substance, 
that Gov. Shelb)', at his own request, did 
not, in the first instance receive a vote of 
thanks, because he was unwilling to receive 
it at the expense of Gen. Harrison whom he 



believed, deserved it as well as himself. 
And in the same speech Mr. Barbour, in 
speaking of General Harrrison, remarked, 
that "his character had been entirely puri- 
fied from the censure which had been im- 
properly cast upon it, and that the meed 
now dispensed has the sanction of the delib- 
erate judgment of the nation unbiassed by 
passion or the false fire of the moment." 
Congress then passed the resolution, herein 
before referred to, unanimously in the Sen- 
ate and with but one dissenting voice in the 
house, voting thanks and a medal to Gen'. 
Harrison and Gov. Shelby. And let it be 
always remembered by our democratic fel- 
low citizens, that the resolution was intro- 
duced by Mr. Dickerson who was after- 
wards a member of Gen. Jackson's Cabinet. 
In reviewing this charge and its refuta- 
tion, the mind can come to no other con- 
clusion than, that the whole affair was sig- 
nally honorable to Gen. Harrison. If, in 
the first instance, the secret malice of his en- 
emies had poisoned the minds of Senators 
against him by making false accusations, and 
had caused them by their votes to attach dis- 
grace to his name, that stain was most trium- 
phantly washed away by the calm, deliber- 
ate and cautious investigation of the War De- 
partment and of the House of Representa- 
tives and by the subsequent unanimous vote 
of Congress. Gen. Harrison's character 
was placed on the most elevated ground by 
the investigation. All the scrutiny of Con- 
gress, procured and directed by the vigilance 
of his enemies, whose charges made it ne- 
cessary for him to demand an investigation, 
could not detect the slightest error in his 
conduct, or the least flaw in his character. 
Like gold tried in the crucible. Gen. Harri- 
son's deeds, shone the brighter by being 
subjected to the ordeal of a scrutinizing in- 
vestigation and the result was more honora- 
ble to him than if Congress had passed the 
resolution in the first instance. 

GEIV. HARRISON AND MR. WEBSTER. 

The Van Buren presses, with that reck- 
less disregard of truth which has characteri- 



17 



red most of their assaults upon the reputa 
tion of Gen. Harrison, have generally pub 



not on friendly or speaking termn for serwal 
years aftervvardSjbut on the 26lh day of Dec. 



mr. ^^*-";:7 ____.. „__,^ u.. ,.;.„., ,.,.1 cmn" and Mariin and John are now acta.^ 



the same ticket with Gen. Harrison, and 
that he refused, observing that Gen. Harri- 
son was the pity of his friends and the scorn 
and derision of hisfocf." 

Mr. Webster, in a letter dated Washing- 
ton March 2S, 1S40, addressed to the Edit- 
ors of the Harrisburg Telegraph and Intelli- 
gencer at Harrisburg Pa., contradicts the a- 
bove report in the most positive terms. He 
says that *'when he heard of Gen. Harri- 
son's nomination by the Harrisburg Conven- 
tion he took the earliest opportunity to de- 
clare publicly that he approved the nomina- 
tion and should join heartily with his fel- 
low-citizens in giving it support." In the 



Cian" anu iviarnn anu jonn are uuw acun^ 
together, as it is believed, for the unho! v' 
purpose of overthrowing this Government. 
But to return to Gen. Harrison. The De- 
mocratic presses have charged that he was 
recalled by President Jackson "because he 
interfered with the domestic relations of the 
nation." This charge, like every other 
has been met and vanquished, " On th> 
10th day of November 1828, Gen. Harn 
son, as Minister to Columbia, embarked from 
the United States on his mission. On the 
27th day of February 1829, he presented 
his credentials at Bogota and was received 
with great respect," the Official Gazette at 



nu- brief but l^ogota complimenting him as a distinguish- 

;ioquent tribute to the man of tlfe people's ed citizen and anticipating the best results 

choice. -Gen Harrison has long been before OT','"'! T'n °''- u l^th day of 

he country in war and peace. ^The history March 1.829, Gen. Harnson was superseded 

p,- IT u u- i \^ K..„.,^ ,.r,\.\\J- by the appointment of Ihomas P. Moore 

of his life shows him to be a brave soldiei, "J; li i\ u u a 

. . .,. 1 . „^. „,„„ Tf • ot Kv., only fitteen days alter he had p 

a patriotic citizen and an honest man. It is "^ * .> ' J -^ . K 



too late, quite too'late, for detraction to do 
its office upon his reputation either miwta- 

RY OR CIVIL." 

If the Van Buren presses thought the 
supposed testimony of Daniel Webster 
against Gen. Harrison was entitled to the 
respect and confidence of the people, we 
suppose that his evidence /or him ought to 
be equally'^as powerful, and should induce 
the editors wlio vvete so eager to have Mr. 
Webster on their side, now to give in their 
adhesion to Gen. Harrison. 

GEN. HARRISOiVS MISSION TO CO 
LUMBIA. 
Gen. Harrison was appointed as Minister 
to Columbia by President Adams and was 
re-called by President Jackson. Martin 
Van Buren was appointed Minister to Eng- 
land, but the Senate refused to confirm the 
nomination, one John C. Calhoun, Vice 
President ot the United States, giving his 
casting vote against it, and thus occasioning 
the recal of Mr. Van Buren. They were 



pre- 
sented his credentials and when it was im- 
possible that his course in Columbia could 
have been known \\\ the United States.— 
Niles Register, from which the Van Buren 
presses have made many quotations, in 
speaking of Gen, Harrison's recal, says — 
"The charges against Gen. Plarrison appear 
to have been frivolous arul unjust, if not 
ridiculous. They foli^owed close upon 
the information that he had been super- 
seded in his mission which, indeed, seems 
chiefly to have caused or supported them." 
It has thus been shown that the pretend- 
ed reason for Gen. Harrison's recal did not 
exist. Whether the President recalled him 
because he disliked the idea of having a suc- 
cessful rival in Military glory, or for sorao 
substantial reason wiiich has never been as- 
signed, we are unprepared to say. 

GENERAL HARRISON IN AN IRON 
CAGE, 

The Globe, with its accustomed love of 
falsehood, has published a long article m 



which it asserts that Gen. Harrison has heen 
placed in an iron cage, denied the use of 
pen, ink and paper and is kept, like a pris- 
oner, by a corresponding Committee. Tiie 
origin of this charge is briefly this. A letter 
was addi-essed by a certain Miles HoichJciss, 
the corresponding Secretary oi the Ui'ion 
Association of Oswego, to Gen. IJarri.^on, 
requesting information as to his political o- 
pinions. The Madisonian states that Hotch- 
kiss is " the keeper of a nine pin bo/ling 
alley and a groggery for loafers"- — that he 
is a Deist and a follower of that profane and 
impious wretch Fanny Wright. The letter 
he addressed to Gen. Harrison was answered 
by David Gwynne, J. C. Wright a ltd INI. 
O'. Spencer, a corresponding Committee, 
on behalf of Gen. Harrison. The reason 
assigned for the action of this Committee 
was that Gen. Harrison received so many 
letters daily that his answer in person was 
ahogether impracticable. The Globe, in 
commenting upon this proceeding, called it 
an ^'example of Whig management un- 
paralleled in our political annals.^'' The 
NJadisonian, in reply to this article of the 
Globe, shows conclusively that there is an 
example in our political annals for Gen. 
Harrison's course and that the example 

WAS SET BY Gen'l. JaCKSON HIMSELF. 

When he was a candidate for the Presiden- 
cy, "he had a confidential committee to re- 
lieve him of the burden of his correspond- 
ence." Harry Lee was one of that commit- 
tee. But this is not all. David Gvvynne, 
one of the person's composing the corres- 
ponding committee to whom Gen. Harrison 
handed the letter from Oswego, was ojie of 
the persons loho cotnposed the correspond- 
ing cominittce of Gen. Jackson himself. 
When we see the leading newspaper of the 
Democratic party in the United States, nay, 
the very organ of Mr. Van Buren's admin- 
istration blowing hot and cold in this way, 
may we not well ask, *'oh shame, where is 
thy blush ?" And what must honest Demo- 
crats ihink of an argument of the Globe 
which applies with equal force to their own 
favorite,and v^^hich places Gen Jackson him- 



self in an iron cage and afraid to speak his 
own sentiments when he was a candidate for 
the Presidency. The truth is, however, 
that Gen. Jackson is now out of power, that 
the Globe has a peculiar reverence for ."the 
powers that be" and does <|pt scruple to 
s'ab Gen. Jacksonlinder ii.e fifib rib when 
he thinks Martin Van Buren is,t.o be bene- 
fitted by it. Will the Democratic-friends of 
Gen. Jackson tapiely submit to such treat- 
ment of their favorite? 

GEr-<J. HAH^ISON'S BRAVERY. 

It has been Shown, in the preceding pa- 
ges that Gen. Harrison's enemies have stig- 
matised him with cowardice and have had 
theaborain;ibIe meanness to call him an old 
granny. In one sense of the term, wehave 
shown that Gen. Harrison, as a granny, 
has been quite a successful practitioner. — 
He delivered the women and children on 
our frontier from the tomahawk and scalping- 
knife of tiie Indians, by the achievement of 
the glorious victory of Tippecanoe. By 
his prudence and energy at Fort Meigs, he 
delivered the country from the evils I'osult- 
ingfrom the i-ash movement of Gen. Win- 
chester, and delivered, from the danger of 
an invasion by Proctor and the Indians, 
hundreds and thousands of persons from the 
calamities which would have attended such a 
movement. And again, at the Battle of the 
Thames, Gen. Harrison and Gov. Shelby 
and the brave men under their command de- 
livered Tecumseh of his life and the Brit- 
ish and Indian Troops of their arms. And 
it is sincerely hoped that the day is not far 
distant when Gen. Harrison will again play 
the Granny by delivering this land of the 
mischiefs with which Martin Van Buren's 
Administration has made it pregnant. 

It has been shown that at the Battle of 
Tippecanoe Gen. Harrison led Snelling's 
company to victor3^ It has been shown 
that he again acted as a leader in the Battle 
of the Thames; that the enemy's balls cut 
the twigs and leaves of the trees over his 
head and that some of his soldiers were shot 
down in ten feet of him. It has been shown. 



19 



that Gen. Harrison for liis bravery and good 
conduct won the ajjplaupe of Gor. S/u-.lhy, 
of Mnj. Croshan, of Gen. Cass, of all 
ins jiids.de-c(imp, of his o^icers and 
men, of President Madison, of Ike Ken- 
tucky and Indiana Legislatures and of 
the Congress of the United States. We 
will ptesfMit a few additional testimonials, 
to show that Gen. Harrison, from the earliest 
to the latest period of his Military career, 
sustained the same distin<!;ni'-hed character. 

Gen. Jinthony Wayne, (one of the best 
Indian ficrhters that ever lived in America,) 
in his letter to the Secretary of War, ?;ivina; 
an ofllcial account of his sanguinary Indian 
battle in 1792 said: — 

-'My faithful and gallant Lieutenant Har- 
rison rendered the most essential service by 
comrr.unicaling my orders in every direc- 
tion, and by his conduct and bravery excit- 
iisgthe troops to victory." 

Simon Snyder, Governor of Pennsylva- 
nia, in his Message of December 10, 1813, 
said:— 

"Already is the brow of the young war- 
rior Croghan, encircled with laurels and the 
blessings of thousands of women and chil- 
dren rescued from the scalping-knifc of the 
rulhiess savage of the wilderness and from 
the still more savage Proctor, rest on Har- 
rison and his gallant army." 

Commodore Perry, in a letter addressed 
to Gen. Harrison on the ISth of August, 
18l7, respecting the Baltic of the Thames, 
says:— . " 

"The prompt change made by yon in the 
order of battle, on discovering the ]>ositiou 
of the enemy, has always appeared to mc 
to have evinced a high degree of military 
talent. I concur with the venerable Shelby 
in his general approbation of your conduct 
in that campaign." 

The Hon. Langdon Chcves, in speak- 
ing of that battle on the floor of Congress 
said: — 

"The victory of Harrison was such as 
would have secured to a Roman General i" 
the best days of the republic, tlie honors of 



a triumph. He put an end to the'vvar in the 
uppermost Canada." 

Thomas Pitchie, the present Van Buren 
Editor of the Richmond I^nquirer, when 
publishing a letter of Gen. liarrison^a writ- 
ten during the war, said: — 

"Gen. Harrison's letter tells us every 
thing we wish to know about the officers 
except himself He does justice to every 
one but Harrison, and the world must there- 
fore do ju^Jtice to the man who was too mod- 
est to be just to himself." 

Col. Richard M. Johnson said, in a 
speech delivered by him in Congress, so late 
as the 2d of March, 1831.— 

"Of the character of Gen. Harrison I need 
not speak— the history of the West is his 
history. For forty years he has been iden- 
tified with its interests its perils and its 
hopes. Universally beloved in the walks of 
peace and distinguishc;! by his ability in the 
councils of his country he has been yet more 
illustriously distinguished in the field. Du- 
ring the late war, he was longer in active 
service than any other general officer, he 
was perhaps oftener in action than any one 
of them and never sustained a defeat.'' 

Gen. Lytic of Ohio, in a speech deliv- 
ered by him at Cincinnati in the fallcfioSS, 
speaking of Gen. Harrison, uses the follow- 
ing language, which is quoted in the Lynch- 
burg Virginian of 29lh January^ 1S40: — 

"It is true \hat that gentlemen (General 
Harrison) and myself arc now as we have 
sometime been, opposed to each other in 
some of our views, perhaps in most, as to 
the public" men and measures of the day ; 
but were we as widely separated as the poles, 
I can neither be made to forget his virtues 
nor withhold from him just commendatioa 
for his many eminent services. Sir, I 
would be a traitor to my own nature if 1 
found inyself capable of disparaging the 
claims of a public servant so eminent, so 
well tried, and v^^ho.se life has been a history 
of such usefulness and gallantry as that of 
Gen. Harrison. Rather than rob the tem- 
ples of that justly honored and time worn 
piililic servant of a single laurel, I would 



20 



V — wv>im2< 



-., m Justice and gratitude, to heap although T am unaccustomed to speech malt, 
chapletson his brow. '^ ing, I hope the House will bear with me for 

J. O' Fallon, one of Gen. Harrison's a lew moments, for I shall not trouble it 
aids, states in his letter of the 26th Februa- Jong. I shall only reply to some particular 
ry, 1840, herein before mentioned, matters. I shall not deal in generalities. We 

"At the commencement of the battle of have had too many of them already. Sir, 
Tippecanoe, when the first gun was fired at I have heard members of this House charge 
our advanced picket, I was at the tent of Gen. Harrison with cowardice, whom he de- 
Gen. Harrison who was then up at the fire, fended and protected from the war-knife and 
I had an opportunity to observe his manner; tomahawk of the Indian, when ihey were 
he was cool and collected, and every move- sleeping in their mother's arms, 
ment of his countenance and every word he Mr. Speaker:— I know something of Gen. 
uttered at that trying moment— perhaps the Harrison; and something of his history, and 
mostembarrassuigin thelife oi a soldier— something of his deeds. I know individu- 
denoted the highest order of personal cour- als who were with him during the last war ; 
age. Pie mounted his horse instantly and, who were with him in the^battle of the 
accompanied by his staff, hastened, in the Thames, Fort Meigs, and Fori Stevenson, 
direction of the line first attacked. A part I know, sir, that cannon balls and chain-shot 
of this line, unable to withstand the fierce and bomb-shells, flew thick around him in 
and desperate onset of the Indians, the Gen- these battles. The gentleman from Cler- 
eral met retiring within our lines in some mont, (Mr. Buchanan,) said that Gen. H. 
disorder and confusion, closely pressed by was not, during the battle of Fort Meigs, 
the Indians, some of whom were in the near enough to have the scales knocked off 
midst of them. Gen. \Ivlyv\sov\ led iji jyer^- of him. Well, sir, if he was not near 
son a company of the 4th Infantry to the enough to have the scales knocked off, he 
breach; and such was the effect oi his bold was near enough to have the scales and dirt 
and fearless behaviour and so great was the knocked on to him by cannon balls. (Who 
confidence of his army in his ability to con- saw it.? asked some member.) I saw it, sir. 
duct them to victory, that his presence and I was in that battle. I saw a cannon ball 
voice at once rallied the retreating detach- strike within two feet of Gen. Harrison du- 
ment and they took position at a point equal- ring that fight. I was there. I saw bomb- 
ly exposed where half of their number, if shells and chain-shot flying all around him. 
not more, were either killed or wounded. — Horses were shot down under him. I was 
During the battle Gen. Harrison was seen also at the battle of Fort Stevenson. I saw 
ijoherever danger icasinost imminent wher Gen. H. there, and was in the hottest and 
ever the fight luas the thickest. His Aid, hardest of the fight, and where balls flew 
Col. Owen, was killed at his side, and al- thickest, and where steel met steel the fierc- 
most at the same moment a ball passed est, there would you find Gen. H. I speak 
through the GeneraVs hat, grazing his what I know, and what my eyes have seen. 
head.*' Gen. Harrison is not a coward, and those 

Mr. Pollock of Muskingum, recently who call him a coward know nothing of 
made the foHowing brief but eloquent reply him. He was a brave, prudent and fearless 
to Messrs. Buchanan and P'lood, two mem- General. He took the right course during 
hers of the Ohio Legislature, who had as- the last war— he acted a noble part, and his 
Bailed Gen. Harrison's bravery. country has honored him for it. Ask the 

"Mr. Speaker:— I have listened to the soldiers who fought by his side, whose arms 
dabate, thus far, with much patience. I were nerved by his presence; whose hearts 
have heard abuse heaped upon Gen. Harrison, were cheered by his valor; and who were 
by men who are comparatively young; and led to triumph and to victory by his eour- 



age, and bravery, aim skui. Ask ihem, had almost saitl of the phronzy) wl.ich you 
sir, if Gen. Harrison was a coward — and allow your polity altachmeiUs and animosi- 
they, sir, will tell yon, no! ties to engender — assume the cool a'ul gen- 
Sir, I have done. I only wished to give erons frame of mind which sr well hefits 
my testimony in favor of Gen. Harrison, the free and enlightened citizen (and snch 
and to state what I have seen, in opposition you are) and calmly answer the enquiry. 
to the statements of those who are ignorant "Who is he whom we are descrihing as 
of his character, and who know nothing of the petticoat General— a superannuated and 
his bravery and skill." pitiahle dotard?" Yourselves will answer — 

The Nashville Banner of 21st Februa- and that not on compulsion — political aspi- 

ry 1840, contained an article from a Van rations out of view, yourselves will answer 

Buren paper in Ohio, which is so honorable most frankly, — he is a tried, and a worthy 

to the editor and so difi'erent from the course citizen: ay, 'seven times tried is he' — in 

generally pursued by the Van Buren press the ordeals of fire and water. While yet a 

that we copy it entire. stripling, you will say, he gave himself to 

"The following rebuke to the traducers of the arduous service of his country; he ex- 
Gen. Harrison, is from the Ohio Confedc- changed the joys and the safety of family 
rate, a Van Buren paper. Wo commend and home, for the perils and hardships of a 
it to the attention of our Van Buren con- dreary wilderness and a savage enemy. For 
temporaries in this quarter: forty yeais^ thence forward, did he devote 
GENERAL HAllHISON. himself to his country; in peace and in war, 

"A superannuated and pitiable dotard." in danger and security, in the camp and in 

O. S. Bulletin. the closet, ii; ihe Senate and the batlle-lield, 

"As the PETTICOAT General passed through did he serve that country in true fealty and 

town," &c — Dem. Si'ARK. untarnished honor; until, even now, grown 

If we did not entertain a high respect for grey in that hard service which has brought 

the papers from which we have made the him nothing but a glorious reputation and a 

foregoing quotations, we would avoid theli- conscience void of oflence against the obli- 

abilities to which we know w^e are exposing gations of patriotism, he stands m his old 

ourself, when we take exception to these age, among the millions who surround him, 

expressions. But it is precisely because we a model of oflicial purity and uncorrupted 

esteem them influential and worthy journ- integrity. And this is the toil-worn soldier 

als, that we are not at liberty to forbear the and honored citizen who is described as " a 

objections which we have against them, or of superannuated and pitiable dotard,'* and a 

the imputation of a fault-finding disposition, '•'•petticoat General"!! 

Can it be, brethren, that the cause which Brethren, if wc believe another to be the 
you espouse, the principles you prefer, can better statesman, let us say so. If we think 
only be secured by the use of such means as the aged patriot entertains opinions and sen- 
this? Are the truth and the beauty and the timents adverse to the important interests of 
power of Republicanism to be established our country, let us canvass unreservedly 
by detractory aspersions of individual char- those sentiments and opinions. But, in the 
acter? Are Mr. Van Buren's claims to the name of humanity and gratitude, let us not 
respect and confidence of the people, and taunt the war-worn veteran with the decrepi- 
his title to the highest honor of the public tude of years, which come to. all of human 
service, only to be maintained, or any de- kind, nor touch with rude, unfeeling hand, 
gree assisted, by contumelious treatment of his hard-earned garlands, won on many a 
his rivals in popular favor.-* Surely there is bloody tield, where brave men fought! — 
error in this thing. Divest yourselves, if Gentlemen, there is a vast difference be- 
but for a moment, of the excitement, (we twcen the goose quill and the death-dealing 



sword — a mighty contrast between the suf- 
ferings and the danger;? of a tented field, and 
the soft and easy life of the crilic who des- 
pises it. 

When under the impulse of political acer- 
bity, one feeis prone to di.«para.i:;e the just 
claims of General Harrison to the considera- 
tion of the people, there «re two circumstan- 
ces, the i-ecollection of which oui^ht, it 
would seem, to arrest the incipient purpose. 
It should be remembered, in the first place, 
that three years haye just gone by, when a 
majority of the citizens of Ohio would have 
raised him to the loftiest post of responsi- 
bility and honor— and that such an express- 
ion of popu'ar opinion is entitled to some 
weight, in estimating individual character. 
And, in the second place, let it not be forgut- 
ten ('by future generations it will not be) 
that from the service of the State, continu- 
ing through all the active years of a length- 
ened life, he retires in poverty. When the 
fact becomes so common as no longer to be 
remarkable, let his countrymen cease to hold 
it as a token of Harrison's worth; but while 
as yet, it remains the solitary instance, save 
one, in which the love of money has been 
totally lost iu the noble love of country and 
honor, let it be acknowledged the proudest 
monument of his greatness and the best me- 
morial of his virtue. '^ 

GEX. HARRISON'S CiVTL^QUALJFIGA- 
TIONlS. 

We have sho-vn that Gen. Harrison's 
military character stands on the most elevat- 
ed ground. The best evidence of his capa- 
city as a statesman consists in the number of 
public stations he has filled. 

He was appointed by President Washing- 
ton, first as an Ensign and then as a Lieu- 
tenant in t!ie army, in 1791 aiid 17.93. 

He was appointed as a Caplaiii by Presi- 
dent Adams, and then Secretary of' the 
North Western Territory, in 1795 and 
1797. 

He was elected by the people as the,, dele- 
gate from the North Western Territory to 
Congress, in 179S. 

He was appointed Governor of the Indi- 



ana Territory for twelve years, by Presi- 
dents -JelTerson and Madison, in 1801 ;tiul 
1S09. 

He was appointed by President Madison 
and the Senate a Brigadier and then a Major 
General in the United States Army, in 1812. 

He was appointed by President John Q. 
Adams minister to the Republic of Colum- 
bia. 

in lSj.4 aiid 1315 he was appointed by 
the President as a Comniissioner to make a 
treaty with the Indians. 

In 1816, he was elected to Congress from 
Ohio. 

In 1819, he was elected to the Ohio Senate. 

In 1832, he was beaten for Congress be- 
cause he was not an abolitionist. 

In 1824, he was elected Senator to Con- 
gress from Ohio and was afterwards appoint- 
ed Chairman of the Committee of Militar}^ 
Affairsin place of Gen. Jackson who had 
resigned Iris seat. 

In 1827, he was appointed Minister to 
Columbia, and in 1836 received a ^n:iajority 
of ten thousand votes for President in the 
State of Ohio where he lives. 



THE LAND SYSTEM . 
In the sketches orthe civiJ and rsiiiitary ser- 
vices of (ien. Harrison by Mes!>rs Charles S. 
Todd and Benjamin lirake it is shown that in 
October ITy') Gen. Harrison was t'!e<te(i to 
Congress as the l>eleg"ate ofthe North VVes- 
lein Tertilory and took his seat in that body 
in Janua.iy iSUO. ''His first effort was to el- 
iecta ch»[K<i:ein the niode of seihng the pubhc 
Ir.ntis which hiul hitherto been otiered m large 
iiocts-r-a i^ystetn well suited to the ri(th specu- 
J;:ior, but Jidverse to the interest ofthe poor 
man." Oen. felarrison introduced a bill in 
C'on.sjress I>y v^•hieh this odious feature in the 
then ejiistiny laws was repealed; tiie public 
];ui.is taken cut ofthe exclusive control of the 
riei^ arjsloeraey, sold in sectious of six hun- 
diad and forty and half sectious of three hun- 
dred and twenty acres, an'.i the purchasers 
required to pay only one fourth in advance and 
ll'.o balance in instalments oi' one, two three 
and four year^3. The effects of this law were 
to place tiio })oor man in a tiettcr condition to 
purchase the public lends than he had ever 
i)pcn placed by any former law of Congress, 
and to increase thfe population and wealth of 
that immense region of country which now 






coostitutos^several free and in<1ej,enflont States. 

In tho a!)ovo work, atpagefe'il uiut 22, it Is ' 
jilso sfiowii Ural 'Muring' the same sei^- ion of 
Oon«:i'Pss, 31i*. Harrison olit;;iiied an e.xt>-^t;^ion 
of tin- time oC piiymentlbr tho prc-cinj>lipners 
in (lie nortlu-rn part of the Mimni pnrcl);.so, 
wliich enableil them to seoiire llu-ir farnis. la 
tijl;! matter there was some colIi.-jio.i of inter- 
e;_-t between ihe settler? anif the original i>ro-" 
[)rietor, John Cieves Syinnies, the lathcr«in* : 
law ol' Mr. iilarrij-on. He wa;? con-efjnently 
placed in a deiicaie and responsihle gituntiou.^ 
I>at his condtiel was marked by that intc<ifri- 
ty of pui'po.7« vviiich has ever been on© of the 
striking: fliaraeteristics of his life. lie i>-:.i- 
ou^ly sustained ll f the ineiito. 

purcliasers." 

For Ills noble condiut in re,c:n!"<l ti- 
lie lands, the authorts of ll^e work fi' 
the above (jiiotation is made have justly :• _, J 
General Harrison "the fat:i:-;r or thk d \r^ 
STSTKM AM)Ti!ii; I'OOR man's JTiincKD." When in 
(Jonf^ress aflerwards he wns equally dit tin- 
jiMsished us the eiorjiient advocate of the Pen- . 
sion Laws and tiie ar<leiit friend of the wid- 
ows and orphans of the gallant --I! ^ii: who 
fell in the first and bocond w ui . ;i,an 

Inilependence. 

POLITICAL PK1NCIPLE&. 

Gk.nrral Harrison, in his letter to tUi' Kon. 
Harluar Cenny, gives the foilowini'' outline of 
his repnbliean jjiineiples which are the sa::i8 
for which (he Whigs are contending- and o. Inch 
would "overn him if elected President. 

'•1. To coniine his services to a single to; in. 

'•'2. To disclaim all right to control over 
the public treasure, Avith the exception of such" 
l)art of it as may be appropriated by law to 
carry on the public services and that to be 
applied precisely as the law may direct v.nil 
draivn from the Treasury agreeably to the ' 
long established forms of that <lepai'tnient. 

'•3. That he should never attemj)t to iaiiu-. 
ence the elections, either by the people or the 
State Leffi'ilaturcs nor suffer the federal oHi- • 
cers under his control to take any other part 
in them than by giving their own vott's when 
they possess the right of voting. 

"4. That in the exercise of the veto, power, ' 
he should limit his rejection of bills to — 1st. 
Such as ore in his opinion unconstitutional. 
2d. Such as tend to encroach on the righ's of 
thr Slates or individuals. 3. feJuch as involv- 
ing deep int.eres?s, may, in his opinion, require 
more mature dclii>eration or lelerence to tho 
will of the peo()le, to he ascertained at the 
succeeding elections. 

"5. That he should never yuHcr tijc influ- 



ence of his odice to I'o used for purjioses of a 
purely pi'riy character. 

"o,. That in removals from odice of those 
who hold their appointments during the pleas- 
ure of t!i0 executive, the cause of such remo- 
val should be stated, if !'eque&»ed, to t!ie fcsen- 
ate at the lime the n&inination ofu successor 
is made. 
" And lacf not least in iniportance 

♦•8. Tl5«t bo should not sulfer tiie Exeoulive 
Department of tiie Oovernment to become the 
source of legislation, i)at leave the whole bu- 
si.ic.-* ; of making laws for the union lo the de- 
it to which tho Constitution has ex<'lu- 
-i.rncd it, until they hnvtj assumed that 
. where and when alone the 
secntive may Im? heard." 
;! ;.:. l;;tlar ofistMay IStjfi toShcrtod Wil- 
.is, Gen. IJarrison states 1st that he Avas in 
i vor ofdistrJbi(tingthasur()lus revenue among 
the statfes according to the fetleral population 
of each. 2. That he is now in' favor of dis- 
ti'ibiiting the proceeds of the sale of the public 
lands to each state accorcJing to federal pop- 
ulation. i>. That he would approve bills ma- 
king njjpropriatious for impiovemenis clearly 
and exclusively national. 4th. That he would 
feign a bill to charter another bank if it were 
clearly ascertained that the public interest in 
relation to the collection and disbursement of 
the revenue would matcriaiiy suffer without 
one, and theiv^ were unequivocal manifesta- 
tions of pubiic opinion in its favor. 

Tlil] CtJi;!^ENCY. - 
It is not intended in this [)ai)qihlet to enter 
into an elaborate disiuissiou of the many intri- 
■tiate and important questions connected with 
this subject. IJut we^)ropose briefly lo estab- 
lish the following propositions: 1st. 'i'hat, 
when Gen. Jackson came into power, we had 
^isound and uniform currency. 2. That Gen. 
Jackson, when he commenced the war-fare 
.upon the United States Bank, proposed to 
furnish the people in lieu o/'its notes a goi.d a.\9 
aitVER cL'r.RiiNcv. 3. That soon discovering his 
inabilily to produce an exclusive metallic cur- 
rency, he selected the State Danks as deposi- 
taries of the public money and insisted that as 
such they were equally as safe as tho U. y.hank 
were not objecuonable in a political |)oint 
of^vievv, and could furnish as good a circula- 
ting medium as had been afforded by that in- 
'Stitution. 4. That Gen, Jackson, in his last 
i?bessuge to Congress, said the experiment had 
hnswered all the purposes that were expected 
and eulogised the State Banks. 5. That Mr. 
Van iJaren, in his fir.st and subsequent messa- 
ges to Congress, abandoned Gen. Jacksoo'» 



24 



expfrimciit, udniitteil its t'nikire and (ifuoun- 
cetl the Sstate Banks. G. That Lieu. JarUson 
AViis in favor of A bank of the United States, 
aitho' he was opi'osed to the Bank. 7. That 
Mr. Vail Eoren has airain wandered from the 
footsteps' of his " illustrious predecessor" be- 
cause hestanils plrdfjed to go aj^ainwt a Bank 
nndTHRbank. 8. That, when the question 
was first diseussed in Congress, ten years ago, 
the increaseofthc Sfate Banks, their susj)en- 
sion ofspecie payments and the finaneial ruin 
of the country were preoictki). 9. That the 
predictions then made have been fiiilfiUed to 
the very letter. 10. That our bitter experience 
huth in war and peace, has demonstrated the util- 
ity and absolute necessity of a United States 
Bank, and that such an institution can only re- 
lieve the pecuuiiiry distress of the country. — 
li. That, Gen. Harrison stands pledsred to go 
in favor of such a measure of relief. 12. That 
M\' VanBuren stands pledged to go-.igainst it. 
The proofs in support of each of the forego- 
ing propositions will be concisely stated in the 
order in which they are presented. 

FIRST. 

When the circumstances of a private indi- 
vidual are involved in einharassmont, when he 
is largely indebted beyond liis ability to pay, 
his credit is impaired, his resources are dimin- 
ished and if he ever prospers again, ifhis cred- 
it is ever restored, it is only uiter years of care- 
ful mauagemeiit and laborious industry. So, 
when the circulating medium of a nation be- 
comes obstructeti, when its banks fail to pay 
specie, when their notes are not in good credit, 
and when a community ceases to have confi- 
dcnceiu them, years of prudential management 
and cautious dealing muot elapse l)efore the 
currency can be restored to a healthful condi 
tion. This truth was powerfully iilustratetl by 
the experience of the United States during the 
last war. Thelirst Bank ofthe United States 
received the deliberate sanction of tJen. Wash- 
ington, the father of his country and the Presi- 
tlent of the Convention that formed the Consti- 
tution. Its charter expired in 1811, shortly be- 
fore the last war with Great Britain. Mr. Jef- 
ferson, I\Ir. 3Iadison, I^Ir. Clay and many of the 
most distinguished men of the country were 
opposed to the renewal of the charter audit 
failed. T!ie State Banks were thus left with- 
out any great National Institution lo check 
and control them. Mr. Wisk, in a speech de- 
livered by him in Congress, on the 13th October 
1837 showed that the capital of the State Banks 
in 1811 was $52,600,OU0, and that in 1815 it 
rose to the enormous sum of $82,200,000. thus 
showing an increase of ntsarly thirty millioiisi 



in the short period of four year?. These State 
Banks flooded the country with a spurious cur- 
rency. The Governtnent borrowed their pa- 
per to carry on in part the expenses of the war. 
This paper was in many instances and upon 
n(". average fifteen per cent below pur, and Mr. 
RicDuffie, Chairman of the Committee of Ways 
and Means, shows, in a report made by him 
to the House of Uepresentatives on the 13th of 
April 1830, at page 10, that "the Government 
borrowed during the short period of the war 
eighty millions of dollars" on which it sustained 
in tke short period of threeyears, upon the discount 
of the bank paper borrowed and the value of 
the stock given in exchange for it. a loss of forty 
six millions of dollars. In the same report, at 
pages 12 and 13, l>Ir. McDuffiesays that "soon 
after the expiration of the charter of the first 
Bank of the United States, an immense num- 
ber of local banks sprung up under the pecun- 
iary exigencies produced by the withdrawal of 
so large an amount of bank credit, as necessa- 
rily resulted from the winding up of its con- 
cerns — an amount falling very little short of 
fifteen millions of dollars. These banks being 
entirely free from the salutary control which 
the Bank of the United States had recently ex- 
ercised over the local institutions, commenced 
that system of imprudent trading and exces- 
sive issues which speedily involved the coun- 
try in all the embarassments f a disordered 
currency." 'I'he paper of the State Banks was 
at a discount ranging between seven and twen- 
ty five per cent, and in some instances it was 
greater. The Sate Banks in 1815 and 1816 
generally suspended specie payments. At 
{•age 15 of Mr. McDuffie's report, it is stated 
that "it appears from the report of Mr. Craw- 
ford, the Secretary of the 'I'reasury, in 1820, 
that, during the general suspension of specie 
payments by the local banks, in the years 1815 
and 1816, the circulating medium of the United 
States had reached the aggregate amount of 
one hundred and ten millions of dollars and 
that, in the year 1819, it had been reduced to 
forty five millions ol'doUars, being a reduction 
of fifty nine per cent in the short period of four 
years." The experience of the country durin/^ 
the war and the deplorable condition to which 
the currency had been reduced, in the absence 
of a United States Bank, induced 31r. Madison, 
Mr. Clay and many others who opposed it, in 
1811, to recommend and to support it, in 1816, 
and the last Bank of the United States was 
then chartered by a Republican President and 
a Republican Congress. When the last Bank 
was chartered, the currency w^as so deranged 
that it was impossible for the Bank suddenly 
to bring it back to a sound condition and for 



25 



some yefli'sanrr tlu» Bank was chaitneil, tho 
notes oftlio ^tate lianks cotilimied lielovv pur, 
Imt prior to tho fxpiration of its oiiarter t))is 
great object was accomplished. At page 2Z 
of Mv. McI)u-:iio'i» report, it is stated that '•one 
ofthe ino?:t JMip.ortiint purposes which tho 
Hunk \v;5 3 desio^tied to accoiiiplish, and which 
it is confidently believeil no other human ag-cn- 
cy could iiave eflVctcd, under our federative 
system ofg^overmuent, wa3 the enforcement 
of specie payments on the part of numerous 
local hanks tleriving' their charters from the 
several States, and whose i)aper, irredeemable 
in specie and illimitable in its quantity, con- 
stituted the almost entire currency of the coun- 
try. Amidst a combination of the greatest 
dillicuities. the bank has almoir't completely 
succeetled in the performance of this arduous, 
delicate and painful duty. With exceptions, 
too inconsiderable to merit notice, all the iState 
Bunks in the Union have resumed specie pay- 
ments. And, at page 23 of the same report, it 
is shown that the State Banks wei:e aided 
in the resumption by the United States Bank 
and could not have resumed specie payments 
without its assistance. At pages IS and ly of 
the same report, it is further shown that the 
United iState.^! Hank had '* ac'ualh/ fufnishcd a. 
drcalating medium of more uniform value than specie' 
and "a currency of absolutely uniform value in 
all places, for all the purposes of paying (he 
pul)iie contributions and disbursing the public 
rcveijiie." 

Such were the ends accnnspliiihcd by the 
United States Bank; and the recollection of 
every intellisrent and honest man will sustain 
the facts thus stated by Mv. I>IcDntfie i£« 18:30, 
viz : that the notes of the United States Bank 
were then equal in all parts of tho Union to 
gold and silver, and that the notes of the aitate 
Banks were then nearly of the same vulue, tho 
only difference being a difference in exchange 
of from one to two per cent. 

SECOND. 

Such was the condition of the currency when 
Gen. Jackson first commenced his warfare up- 
on the United States Bank. We now proceed 
to show that he and his friends, in lieu of it, 
proposed to give us a gold and silver currency. 
iMany extracts might be given in proof of this 
proposition, but the following are deemed suf- 
ilcient. 

Gen. Jackson drank iho following ton?t ut 
a public dinner given to him at Vauxhall in 
1833. 

" The true conslilulional currcnc>/ is gold and 
silver coin : It can cover and protect the labor 
of our country without the aid of a National 
Bank, an institution which can never be other- 



wise than hostile to the libertieH of the people, 
because its tendency is to associnte wealth 
with undue power over the public inter- 
ests" 

OnthelOth of July 1834, the Washington 
Globe — the ollicial organ of Gen. Jackson's 
Administration — published an article, under 
fhi> head of '"the gold currency," in which the 
fidlowing golden promises are made^lo hum- 
bug the people. 

" Then a great stream of gold will flow up the 
Missifdpinfrom JVew Orleans, and diffuse itself all 
over the great IFejt. JVearly all the gold coinage 
of the J\'ew H'orld will come to the United States ; 
fur, all the coinage of the new Governments of Mex- 
ico and South America, being the coinage of rebel 
provinces, cannot go to old Spain or any of her de- 
jicndencies and therefore uill come to the United States 
as its natural and best market. T^his will fill Iha 
fFest with doubloojis and half joes ; and, in eight or 
nine months from this time [I6th July l!334] every 
snbstantial citizen will have a long silken purse of fine 
open net work, through the interstices of which the 
yellow gold idill shine and glitter. Tiien travellers 
will be free from the pestilence of ragged, filthy and 
counterfeit notes. Every substantial man and every 
substantial man's wife and daughter will travel upon 
gold." 

Eight months — nny, nine times eight months 
have elapsed since the above sage prediction 
was made. Bat where is the promised Ooi-- 
DE.\ Age? AVhere are the long silken purses 
offuieopcn net work with the yellow gold 
shining and glittering through their intersticei?? 
Where is that great stream of gold flowing 
up the i>Iississippi ? Where are the men 
the wives and the daughters who can get gold 
to travel upon ? Echo answers where ! Has 
not the (country been deluded with State Bank 
paper, and have not the Slate Banks twice 
suspended specie payments since the United 
States Bank was put down ? And can a man 
now obtain even gold enough to bear his ex- 
penses on a long journey ? 

T II I R D. 

It has thus been shown that Gen. Jackson, 
in the commencement of his war upon the 
Bank, expected to furnish the country with h 
gold and silver currency. But he soon found 
out his mistake and made a failure. He then 
began a second experiment and took the State 
Banks under the wing of his protection. la 
his i>Iessage of Dec. 1, 1834, Gen. Jackson 
says : 

''Happily it is already illustrated that tho 
Agency of such an institution (as the United 
States Bank) is not neces^wary to the fiscal op- 
erations of the government. The State Banks 



26 



are fully adequate to the pes'formance of all 
services which were required of the bank of 
the United States, quite as promptly and with 
the same cheapness." " Those institutions have 
already shown themselves competent to pur- 
chase and furnish domestic exchange for the 
convenience of trade, at reasonable rates, and 
not a doubt is entertained that, in a short peri- 
od, all the wants of the country in bank accom- 
modations will be supplied as promptly and as 
cheaply as they have been by the Bank of the 
United States." 

Gkn. Jackson, in his I^Iessage of December 
7, 1835, at page 18, uses the following lan- 
guage : 

" The experience of another year has con- 
firmed the utter fallacy of the idea that the 
Bank of the United States was necessary as a 
fiscal agent of the Government. Without its 
aid as such, indeed in despite of all the embar- 
assments it was in its power to create, the 
revenue has been paid with punctuality by 
our citizens ; the business of exchange, both 
foreign and domestic, has been conducted with 
convenience and the circulating medium has heen 
greatly improved. By the use of the State Banks, 
which do not derive their charters from the 
General Government, and are not controlled 
by its authority, it is ascertained that the mon- 
eys of the United States can be collected and 
disbursed without loss or inconvenience and 
that all the wants of the community in relation to 
exchange and currency are supplied as well as 
they ever have been before," 

FOURTH. 

Continuing his partiality to the State Banks 
and still determined to persevere in his second 
experiment, Gen. Jackson, in his last Annual 
3Iessi»ge to Congress, dated 5th Dec. 1836, says 
at page 15 — 

" Experience continues to realize the expec- 
tations entertained as to the capacity of the 
State Banks to perform the duty of fiscal a- 
gente for the Government at the time of the 
removal of the Deposites. It was alleged by 
the advocates of the Bank of the United States 
that the state banks whatever might be the reg- 
ulations of the Treasury Department, could not 
make the transfers required by the Government 
or negotiate the domestic exchanges of the 
country. It is now well ascertained that the 
real domestic exchanges, jierformed through 
discounts, by the United States Bank and its 
twenty five branches, were at least one third 
less than those of the deposite banks for an e- 
qual period of time and if a comparison he in- 
stituted between the amount of service render- 
ed by these institutions on the broader basis 



which has been used by the advocalfs of the 
United States Bank in estimating what they 
consider the domestic exchanges transacted by 
It, the result will be still more favorable to the 
deposite banks " 

And, in his farewell address, in March 1837, 
Gen. Jackson said " I leave this great nation 

PROSPEROUS and HAPPY." 



It has thus been established that Gen. Jack- 
son had the fullest confidence in the state 
banks. Those institutions in which the public 
money had been deposited had been stimulated 
by two Circular letters from the Treasury De- 
partment, the one dated July 7th 1S34, and the 
other Feb. 22d 1836, to issue an immense _a- 
mount of bank notes on the faith of the public 
deposites, consisting of the surplus revenue of 
the U. States which were by a law of Congress 
removed from the !*itate banks and given o* 
loaned to the several states. On the 11th 
July 1836, the Treasury Department issued a 
circular, directed "to Receivers of Public mon- 
ey and to the Deposite Banks," by which they 
Avere "instructed, after the 15th day of August 
next, to receive in payment of the public lands 
nothing except what is directed by theexistingf 
laws, viz : gold and silver and in the proper 
cases Virginia land scrip." 

In consequence of this order, the state banks, 
which had, for a series of years, been stimula- 
ted to expand their circulation, were compell- 
ed to suspend specie payments in May '37, and 
Mr. Van Buren, in his first message to Con- 
gress, on the 4th Sept. 1837, at page 10, ac- 
knowledges, in the following words, the sig- 
nal failure of Gen. Jackson's experiment and 
thus departs from his footsteps. Speaking of 
the deposite system, Mr. Van Buren says : 

" In the first stages the measure was emi- 
nently successful, notwithstanding the violent 
opposition of the Bank of the United Statee, 
and the unceasing efforts made to overthrow 
it. 'I'he selected banks performed with fidel- 
ity and Avithout any embarassment t& them- 
selves or the community their engagements to 
the Government, and the system promised to 
be permanently useful. But when it became 
necessary, under the act of June 1836, to with- 
draw from them the public money, for the 
purposeof placing it in additional institutions^ 
or of transferring it to the states, they found it 
in many cases inconvenient to comply writh the 
demands of the Treasury, and numerous and 
pressing'applications were made]' for indul- 
gence or relief. As the instalments under the 
deposite law became payable, their own c»n- 



2" 



baraesments und the necessity untler which 
they hiy of curtailing their discountiS and call- 
i.iff ill their debts, increased the jreneral dis- 
tress and contributed with other causes, to 
hasten the revulsion in which, at length, they, 
in cointnon with the other banks were fatally 
involved." " We have no emergencies that 



a great proportion of the abusea which havo, 
in his opinion, been practised by the existing 
bank." 

EIGHTH AND N I N T il 

Mr. Binney, in the i)rogress of the debate 
which occurred in the liouse of Representa- 
tives, in 1^34, und'in reply to .Mr. Polk, made 



make banks necessary to aid the wants of the the following prediction 

Treasury; we have on oc^.nal deposite a large '"If the Secretary's plan wras carried into 

surplus. JVo public interest, therefore, now requii-es effect there would be a hundred banks starling vp 



the renewal of a connexion (with the state banks) 
tchich circumstances have dissolved '' 

In hisIMessage ofSlh Dee. 1837, page 10, 
Mr. Van Buren again stabs the state banks by 
saying "' they have no right to insist on a connexion 



to iaketlie place of the proscribed United !Stale$ 
Hank. 'I'hey would have them shooting out 
their paper missiles in all directions. They 
would come from the 4 quarters of the Union." 
Similar predictions were made by Mr. Clay, 



with the Federal Government nor on the the use of Mr. Webster and others in the course of the 

the public money for their own benefit'^^ and again numerous debates that arose on thissuhject — 

insists that the connexion which circumstances These predictions were disregarded, but they 

have dissolved ought not to be renewed. In have been fulfilled. 

his Message of Dec'r. 183S, Mr. Van Buren 3Ir. Wise, at page 8 of his speech on the 13th 

spoke more kindly of the state banks and com- Oct. 1837, shows that, when the warfare was 

plimented them for their eagerness to resume first waged against the U. Slates Bank, there 

specie payments. In his message of Dec. 1839 were then 3'2U state banks; that this number 

Mr. Van Buren again abuses the state banks was increased to 677, besides 14fi branches ; 

for the second suspension of specie payments that there was an augmentation ofia>iA!/i£r ai/y- 

and, at page 13, renews his objections to any t7a/ in the United States, from ife 145, 192,268 to 

connexion whatever between the Government $324,240,292 an increase of $179,000,000; an 

and the State Banks so highly praised by expansion in //le ctVra/a^fon o( bank notes from 



General Jackson. 

SIXTH AND S K V E N T H . 

Gen. Jack.son, in his veto 3Iessage of July 
10, 1832, says, "a bank of the United States is, 
in many respects convenient for the Govern- 
ment and useful to the people." And asrain : 
"That a bank of the United States, 
competent to all the duties which may be re 
quired by the Government, might be so organ- 
ized as not to infringe on our own delegated 
powers, I do not entertain a doubt. Had the 
executive been called upon to furnish the pro- 
ject ofsuch an institution the duty would have 
been cheerfully performed." 

Gen. .Tackson, therefore, alfho' he was oppos- 
ed to the late bank of the United States, be- 
lieved that a Bank could be chartered which 
would steer clear of constitutional objections. 
But i>Ir. Van Buren has again wandered from 
"the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor," in 
the letter which he addressed to the Hon. Sher- 
rod Williams in 18-36, where he says — "1st That 
he holds that Congress does not possess the 
power to establish a national bank in any of 
the States of the Union, nor to establish, in any 
such states, the branch of any hank located in 
the District of Columbia; and 2nd That he is, 
therefore, decidedly opposed to the establish- 
ment of a National Bank in any of the States 
und is also opposed to the establishment of opinion would sanction tub suspknsion or at 
any such bank in the District of Columbia, as i-east an evasion of sfkcie payments." 
unnecessary and inexpedient and as liable to Has not this prediction also been fulfilled 



$61,323,000 to $185,762,506— an increase of 
paper money of upwards of $124, 000,000; — and 
an extension of tlie amount of bank loans and 
discounts from $200,451,214 to $590,892,661— 
an increase of upwards of $390,000,000 ! ! 

The predictions of 3Iessrs. Binney, Clay, 
Webster and others, as to the increase of the 
state banks and the expansion of their circula- 
tion, are thus most abundantly verified. But 
this is not all. We propose to sho^v that the 
suspension of specie payments by the state banks was 
predicted ten years ago. 

Mr. McDuffie, at pages 27-8 of his report, 
made on the 13th April 1830, says : 

" Ifthe Bank of the United States were des- 
troyed, and the local institutions left without 
itsrestraining influence, the currency would al- 
most certainly relapse into a state of utisoundness. 
The very pressure which the present Bank, in 
winding up its concerns, would make upon 
the local institutions, would compel them etthcr 
to curtail their discounts when most needed or to sus- 
pend specie payments. It is not difficult to predict 
which of these alternatives they would adopt 
under the circumstances in which they would 
be placed. The imperious wants ofa suffering 
community would call lor discounts in lan- 
guage which could not be disregarded. Thk 

PUBLIC NECESSITIES WOULD DE.MANU ANO PUBLIC 



28 



to iKo vpry letter? lias not tlie ourrency re- 
lapsed into a t^tnto of unsosmdneris, s^ince the 
11, S. Bank was prostrated ? Have not the 
state banks curtailed their disconnts when f hey 
were most needed ? Have they not suspended 
specie payments ? Were not tlie Democrats 
false prophets when they predicted a ffoid and 
silver currency in eiorht months? Were they 
not false prophets when they said we could 
get along' without a United Statrs Bank? Were 
they not eflrrefjriously mistaken when thry said 
the state Banks would supply its place? And 
have not all the forebodings of the WhijS's been 
Jiterally realized ? Does not a wide scene of 
pecuniary disaster and distress pervade tiie 
land? And has not experience clearly dem- 
onstrated tliHt the miserable experiments 
which have been made with the currency have 
proved the utility of a United Stales Bank and 
the impossibility of manag'ing' the fiscal atfairs 
of ti»e government without it ? 

T K N T H AND E L E v E NTH. 

It has been before demonstrated tiiat, after 
th'^old United States Bank charter expired, a 
number of state banks immediately sprun<r into 
existence and poured their floods of irredeem- 
able bank paper upon the people. It has been 
proved that the notes of those banks were 
jifreatly below par : that the state banks sus- 
pended specie payments ; and that the gov- 
ernment and the people sustained immense 
losses by those banks. This wlis the experi- 
ence of the country during the war, and when 
we had no United States Bank between the 
years 1811 and l^lfi. And what has been the 
experience of the country in a time ol'profoiind 
peace, since the last United Slates bank wns 
put down ? It has been shown that, as in llie 
former period of experience, hundreds of ^t;1to 
banks were created to supply the place of the 
last U. S. Bank ju'^t as they were cioated to 
supply the place oflhe former bank, and that 
the same consequences have resulted. The 
'•^reat balance wheel" was removed ;ind tl.g 
whole banking" machinerj^ soon run l;j(n ii-c 
wildest disorder. The country vvas again in- 
undated with bank paper. Property again 
rose in value. Speculation once more perva- 
ded the land, but the consequences have been 
precisely similar to those which followed upon 
the refusal of Congress to recharter the old 
bank. The state banks have twice suspended 
specie payments. Their notes are depreci;ited. 
The people again complain of hard times. — 
Property has once more diminished in value. 
In the Eastern cities hundreds and thousands 
of persons have been ruined by the pressure ol 
the times. liaboring men have been turned out 
oremploymenl, and beg,v,:iry stares them in 



the face. In our own state we had a most 
abundant season last year, but, altho' the barns? 
and the granaries of liie farmers are full they 
cannot sell their corn, llieir bacon, their Hour 
or other produce for half its value. Heaven 
haspmiled upon us, i)ut Martin Van Bu- 
ren's measures have destroyed the enVcts of 
thatsmiie. In niany,in<:taaces the jiroduct ofthe 
soil and of the farmers' industry remain unsold 
upon theirbsmds. The sheiilFs and constables 
are u/)on them. They have no money, an<l are 
unable to pay their debts. Their property is 
exposed to sale and does »iot realis^e more than 
a fourth ofits value, suid there is danger that 
every man who is in debt will see his lands, 
l)is negroes, his horses, his cattle, his house and 
even the beds upon wluch his wife and cliildren 
repose turn away from him and sold by the 
otFifer.^ of Justice. What is the cause of this 
deplorable condition? (Jen. Jackson said he left 
this great nation prosperous and happy." Ought 
not iUr. Van Buren, then, to be held respon- 
sible fov the misery and woe which his Admin- 
istration has brought upon it ? Had we not 
a sound and uniforn currency when we had a 
United Stales Bank ? Could we not travel 
upon its notes to any quarter of the Union ? — 
Can we now rlo so upon the notes of the state 
banks? Have not al! the promises of a better 
currency been shamefu'ly violated ? And what 
is the remedy for this wide spread evil ? Our 
experience in war anri in peace answers — a 
United States Bank so organized as to have 
no political influence or at least no power to 
exert it. But, will Mr. Van Buren sanction 
such a bank ? He is solemnly pledged under 
a!' circumstances, to go against it. He denies 
that the Government is bound to furnish a cur- 
rency for the people. It is only bound to take 
care of itself. In all his 3Iesseges, he has rec- 
ommended that the Cfovernment shall remain 
divorced from all banks, and it is in vain to look 
for relief to him. On tlir contrary, Gen. Har- 
rison who is a poor man himself and can sym- 
{)nthise with the debtor class of society stands 
}>!eJged to support a Unitetl States Bank, if 
the ;>eop!e desire if, and if, as has been proved, 
the public monies cannot be safely collei-ted, 
kept and disbursed without its aid. Let everjr 
man then, who wishes to see the currency re- 
stored to its sound condition and who hopes to 
witness the banislimcnt of state bank shin 
plasters, except ^o far s.^ the slate banks may 
be able to redeem them, forthwith resolve to 
eniijt in the great Whig cause of " Harrison 

AND ReKORM."' 

THE SUB TREASURY. 
So nuich has been already said in regard to 






thocurrenry Mint notiu'iff niore tniin n (ur«o- 
ry viewof t!io t^ub Tirnsiiry sclipm« will he 
prescntctl. U is provi<letl by tbc lU\h fserlifui 
orihebili. whicii has p;i!>sc<l the .Senate ami 
is still iK'iuling in (Joiifrress, that the public 
monies •-hall be paid ii^to the htitirls of four re- 
i-eivors creneral, who are to be appoi:;icd by 
the Presi<lent by and with the advit-f jiid con- 
sent of the Senate. By the 24lh seetion ofthe 
l)ill, it is provided that the qnnual a^jrreg'ate 
salaries of the four Ueeeivers General shail tie 
eleven thousand five hundred dollars which, 
'with the increased salary given to the 'JVea- 
surersof tSje i^'int and bran(;h at Philadelphia 
and New Orleans, would amount to thii-leen 
thousand <JoIlars every year. By the 19th 
seelion ofthe bill, it is provided that, after June 
H4(>. one fourth of all the payments to the 
Government shall be made in specie; after 
,fu no ls4C. three Jburths to be paid in specie, 
and after June 1313 oil dues lor postages or 
otherwise shall be paid in gold and^sil ver only. 
The SOth seetion ofthe bill provides that, after 
June 15^13 all disbursemenlg oRpayment% made 
by the United ."rotates or the Post Master Gen- 
eral sliall !»e made in gold or eilver eoin only. 
The other sections of the bill provide for the 
erection of onives for the receivers;'' fix the 
mode of securing the revenue &;n. &c. 

Ir is believed that none of the friends ofthe 
Sub Treasury scheme have the hardihood to 
say that it proposes to relieve the pecuniary 
ilistressosof the country. All the merit claim- 
ed for it, by its friends, is that it simply provides 
for the safe keeping and disbursement of the 
public monies. There are several objections 
to this scheme, either of which, it is believed, 
should be deemed of sufficient importance to 
vender every one but the ofTice holders hostile 
to it. J St. the Sub Treasury is the third experi- 
ment which, in the course of seven years, has 
been made to supply the jdace of a United 
SStates bank. The./(V.si experiment was to fur- 
nish an exclusive metallit^ rurrecicy. 'i'hat ex- 
periment most signally failed and we are now 
further from such a currency t!mn when it was 
commenced. The ^econs^ experiaient consist- 
ed in an eflort to make t!jo ^^tate Banks an- 
swer the purpose. Gen. Jackson said that 
experiment hatl succeeded, lllr. Van Buren 
admitted it had entirely fell short ofthe purpo- 
ses intended. The third experiment of the 
Hub Treasury, has iieen in operation ever since 
Congress in 1S37 nuthorized the issuance of 
Treasury Notes.' But those notes have been 
drawn for large sums. IVone ofthein arc cfa 
Jess denomination than fif\y dollars. Few of 
them have ever passed through tlie hands of 
the great body ofthe people. They h.averor- 
xlituted a currency for the Government and fur 



lilt- (j.ii • M 7 li.-. - idi! ail')!' I.';I :n !*:!i>f or nc- 
comnioilation to the people. A;id while the 
people in all their dealings havo to rely on the 
<|f pieciated notes ol'the State Baidts. i>lr. Van 
B.iren, tiie members of Congress, and the of- 
fi<'e ijoiders have received their salaries in 
Treasury Notes or the equivalent of specie. 

2. The JSai> Treasisry is again objecfionable 
because it gives tlie. Preeidcnl the indinct control 
of the cn'ire revenue ofthe United Sia/cs, a power 
greater than any monarch in Gurbpe ;posscss- 
es. The Prcsifb-nt nominates the receivers 
general; and all the officers ot'tho revenue hold 
their orticcs eiliier directly or indirectly under 
liim and are rcmoveable at his pleasure. — 
These OiHcers are- generally his friends and 
disposed to u^^e the patronage and power of 
their- oHices in proniotiug his views and, if 
tiiey f.iil to do so, could be displaced, so as to 
make room for his suppliant tools. iVIoney is 
power, and an ambitious President would 
know how to use it. 

3. The Sub Treasury is odious because its 
object is to enable the government to collect 
the public revenue in gold and silver. AlVer 
the yeariyi'i, the notes, even of specie paying 
i)anks, will not be received. W it is right for 
iheOeneral Government to collectthe revenue 
or taxes in gold and silver, it is equally proper 
that the Estate governments should collect their 
taxes in;g:old and silver and who. in the State 
of Tennessee, would like to be compelled to 
pay his taxes in gold and silver? If the State 
Banks continue the suspension, could the great 
mass ofthe people obtain gold and silver e- 
nough to pay their taxes^ 

4. Thh Sub Treasury is the worst experi- 
ment that has yet been m;ide because it is the 
most expensive. When the public money was 
<leposited in tlie United States Bunk ami in the 
State Banks, tiie Government paid themnoth- 
ing for keeping or disbursing ft. But now four 
Keceivers General are to be created whose 
annua! fjalari??. with the increased salaries of 
(lie Treasurers of the i^Iint and Branch i\lint, 
aniount to (7n/7(r« thounfind dollars 'I'his objec- 
ti(Th WHS stated by Gov. Pof.K in a speech de- 
livered by him in Vong:vcs?i in 1S3-5. He was 
then in favor of depositing the money with the 
state banks and said, in that speed); "the 
temporary use ofthe money in a Bank consti- 
tutes the on']/ compensation the Bank receives for 
the risk of keeping it and l'o\' the service it per- 
forms. If IIkckivkrs be emj^oyed, they can 
perform no other service than to keep the mo- 
ney and must bk i'aid a co>irr,NSATioN trom tmi? 
TKBASURV.' But although the bill now pend- 
ing in Congress i)roposes to pay the receiver* 
a compensation out of the Treasury, Col Polk 



30 



has chan;tre<l liis tune and is now one of the 
warmest advocate"* of the system which he 
thus tl<Miounre(l in lH3o. 

5. The Sub Treasury is an abominable mea- 
sure because its effect would be to place the 
whole revenue ofthe country in the cusftody 
ofindividuals, to cramp the business of the 
country, to withdraw from circulation most of 
the irold and silver and to lock it up in the 
hands ofthe receivers. This ol>jectiou was 
forcibly stated by Gov. Polk in the same 
speech made in 1835. He said that the Gov- 
ernment money would be "safer in the hands 
of a bank than it could be with an individual. 
Banks — continues Gov. Polk — when they are 
safe recommend themselves to the Treasury 
for other reasons. 1st. The increased facility 
they possess over individual collectors or re- 
ceivers, in making transfers of public money to 
distant points for disbursemeat without charge- 
to the public. Indked this is a servick which 

INDIVIDUALS, TO THE EXTENT OF OUR LARGE REV- 
ENUE COULD NOT PERFORM. 2nd. It Hiay happen 
in the fluctuation of the amount of revenue 
and expenditure, that there will be at some 
times a considerable surplus in the Treasuiy, which, 
though it may be but temporary, if it be ivith- 
drawn from circulation and placed in the strong 
BOX OF A RECEIVER /,'ie amount of circulation u'ill be 
iNjumousLY disturbed by hoarding the drposite 
by which every article of merchandize or property 
would be ajfected..^' 

Gov. Polk and his friends have tried to ex- 
plain away this speech, but the reasoning a- 
bove quoted is so plain that no man in his sen- 
ses can misunderstand it, and the objections 
thus taken by him against a Sub Treasury in 
1835 are equallj"- powerful against a Sub Trea- 
rury in 1840. 

6 The Sub Treasury ought to be regarded 
as dangerous to the liberty ofthe people, be- 
cause the principal argument introduced by 
Mr. Van Buren in its favor in his message of 
Deer 2, 1839 is in these words; — "From the 
results of inquries made by the Secretary of 
the Treasury, in regard to the practice among 
them, T am enabled to state that in twenty two 
out of taventy seven foreign governments from 
which undoubted Information has been obtain- 
ed, the public monies are kepi in charge of 
public officers. This concurrence of opinion 
in favor of that system is perhaps as great as 
exists on any question of internal administra- 
tion." Mr. Van Buren has thus shewn that he 
wishes to have the moneys of this Republic 
kept in the same way that twenty two mon- 
archs have the moneys of their governments 
kept. But his friends say there is nothing 



wrong in this as mo^^t of the laws by which 
■\\e are governed are borrowed from Englan<l. 
Let it he recollected, however, that only so 
much of the British !iaw is in force in the U- 
nited States as is applicable to our republican 
form of Government, sftid that the mode iii 
which the public moneys are kept in foreign 
governments is essentially different from the 
genius and spirit of our free institutions.-— 
Monarchs delight in the Sub Treasury system 
because the.otlicers who keep the public money 
are under their control and they thus obtain 
money and strengthen their own power. Re~ 
piiblia^, on the contrary, delight to give the peo- 
ple, through their representatives, the entire 
control over their own money and are always 
jealous of placing so much power in the hands 
ofone man. 

7. Mr. Van Buren's pertinacity in pressing 
the Sub Treasury ought to be considered, by 
a free people jealous of their rights, as one of 
the mo.*t odious features belonging to the 
wholesystcm. The Sub Treasury scheme wa» 
first introduced in the House of Representa- 
tives by Geo. Gordon of Virginia in 1835. On 
the 12th day ofjFebruary, it was rejected by an 
overwhelming vote; only 33 members voting 
for it and 101 members voting against it. A 
large majority of the friends of Gen. Jackson 
were then op jjosed to the scheme. 3Jr. Van 
15uren proposed it at the special session of 
Congress, convened in Sept. 1837 It was a- 
gain rejected. He proposed it at the regular 
sess^ion convened in December of the same 
year. It was again virtually rejected. He 
renewed the proposition in his message of Dec. 
1838. Congress once more refused to adopt it. 
After it had been four times solemnly rejected 
by the representatives of the people, Mr. Van- 
Buren again made the same recommendation 
in his message of 1839. The bill was introduc- 
ed in the senate and hurried through tnat body 
with the design, as it is believed, of compelling 
Judge White to resign hisseat. 'I'hat end was 
accomplished; and although ."^Ir. Van Buren 
has a majority ofthe House of Representatives 
in his favor and although his friends in the Sen- 
ate, in despite of every remonstrance, hasten- 
ed the jiassage of the bill in that body under 
the pretence that its immediate adoption was 
of vital importance to the welfare ofthe coun- 
try, yet it has been permitted to slumber for 
three months in the House and his friends have 
refused to pass it although they could at any 
time have done so. 

Has not Mr. Van Buren, in his course on 
this subject, manifested an utter disregard of 
the will ofthe people expressed by their Rep- 



31 



rcsenlatives in Congress/ And will a free 
j)eopie permit liini to force tiiis tietestabie 
measure upon them ac'ainst their will? 

8. The Sub Treasury should receive the 
indignant scorn and abhorrence of every true 
lover of his country because its advoctites in 
Congress have argued that its effect will be 

TO DIMINISH TUB WAGF.S OF LAiUJR AM) KKUUCK 
THEM TO THE I-OW STANDARD OF PUICES GIVEN IN 

FOREIGN COUNTRIES. This (loctnne was avow- 
ed in the Senate by i>Jr. Bdchannan of Penn- 
sylvania. 3Jr. Davis of Massachusetts cen- 
sured it in the severest terms. Mv. Uuchannan 
afterwardsi denied that he had used any such 
argument, but in his piinted speech in the 
Globe he says; "From the great redundancy 
of our currency, articles are manufactured in 
iPrance and Germany lor one iialf of their ac- 
tual cost in this country. Here is an exam- 
ple; In Germany, tchere Ike currency is jmrehj me- 
tallic and the cost of every thing reduced tr) a 
hard money standard, a piece of broad cloth 
can be manufactured for fifty dollars, the man- 
ufacture of which in our country, from the ex- 
pansion of our paper currency would cost one 
hundred dolla:-s." And again he says: ''Re- 
duce our nominal to the real standard' of prices 
throughout the world and i/ou cover our country jvith 
blessings and benefits/'' Mr. Buchannan then in- 
stitutes a comparison between England and 
France and Germany and shows that, in the 
latter countries, owing to the leduced wages 
of labor, articles can be manufactured much 
cheaper than in England. The same course of 
argument in favor of tlie sub treasury was a 
dopted by Col. Benton, who says: 'To our 
southern states, to the whole cotton, rice, to- 
bacco and sugar growing region now so griev- 
ously afflicted with the curses of the paper 
system, I would say study the financial histo- 
ry of Holland, France and Cuba. Follow their 
example. Imitate thrm." 

The boasted argument, then, of two of3Ir. 
Van Buren's most efficient supporters in favor 
of his darling sub treasury scheme, is, that it 
will reduce our nominal to the real standard 
of prices throughout the world. And how is 
this to be done except by reducing the wages 
of labor? The people are asked to imitiate the 
hard money countries ofFrance, Germany and 
Cuba, and to reduce the standard of|)rices to 
the wages given in those countries. This 
would suit the rich, overgrown capitalist well 
enough, but let us enquire how it would an- 
Bwer the poor laboring man, the sweat of 
whose brow is the best evidence of what the 
wages of labor ought to be? 3Ir. Merrick, in 
a recent speech delivered in the senate on the 



eub treasury, gives a talde of the wages of labor 
in hard money countries. In France, the yearly wao-es 
of ploughmen, shepherds laborers and farm servmits 
range from two to ticelve dollars a year where their 
boarding is furnished and from nine' to fourteen cents 
per day. In Germany, the wages of labor range 
from three to twelve dollars per year ichere the la- 
borer is boarded, In Italy the tcagcs of laborers 
range from two to five dollars per year, boar<l 
furnished. In Belgium, the workmen employ- 
ed in the iron works and the machine making 
factories, live on potatoes and vegetables,with 
a piece of meat among them for dinner regu- 
larly. Coffee of chicory; and on Sundays, 
spirits in moderate c(uantity. These are the 
best paid. The workmen who come cnder the 
second class are the masons, blacksmiths, 
carpenters etc. of the towns: the woolen fac- 
tory and domestic weavers who live nearly 
in the same manner, but consume a less por- 
tion of meat, or take it only three or four limes 
a week. The cotton weavers and factory 
workmen live less well. Potatoes and vege- 
table soup form their chief food, with bread, 
half rye and half wheat; coffee and occasional- 
ly a glass of spirits and commonly brow n beer 
are their beverage. The beer is particularly 
nasty; but I believe wholly free from coculus 
indi.-'.us, etc. etc. — pure malt, hops, water, and 
salt ill proportioned and execrably boiled. The 
linen weavers and the common laborers are 
identified and consume potatoes and rye bread 
which is a common article of consumption in 
Belgium and indeed generally on the conti- 
nent among the poorer classes vegetable soup 
rarely flavored with meal, coffee or chicory, 
beer etc." 

Such — farmers, mechanics and laboring 
men — is the hardicay in which the poor and la- 
boring classes live in the hard money coun- 
tries to which the advocates of I>Ir. Van Bu- 
ren's sub-treasury refer you. They tell you 
to reduce our nominal to the real standard of 
prices throughout the world. If this is done, 
your wages will have to come down to from 
two to twelve dollars a year ; you would have 
to live upon potatoes, with a little meat doled 
out to you like it is to the southern slaves : 
your bread, half rye and half wheat: ahd your 
vegetable soup rarely flavored with meal. — 
And such would be the consequences of the 
sub-treasury, as its |own friends told you. 

They now try to deny that tley ever said so, 
but their own printed speeches are on record 
and they cannot get out of it. And suppose 
you re-elect Mr. Van Buren, and his sub-treas- 
ury bill is passed — suppose your wages come 
down and your wives and your little childien 



3 



O 
^ 



f.lioiil.1 i)est;trvini,'' ni-siiivoiiiiir aiouiul yon— himself. At page 9 he says : << The nres- 

=.u|)|.o.«e t.II your toil and laln.r ^liouid oiiiy en- g^t condition of the defences of our nrinri- 

jible yoii lo earn the feesiiilv einis;i^ti-iue oi a , . i ^ i ' , 

Mississippi iugro-%vl)Ht would ?Jr. Van ]?n- pal seaports and liavy yards, as represented 

ren care ? He vvoidd have his salary or5^2o,- "Y tne accompanying report of the Secreta- 

()<10.(!0 a year—enuid ''fare siiinptuously every vy of War, calls for the early and serious at- 

day" and" take pleasure trips in his English tcnlion of Congress ; and as connectin"- k- 

earriage with his livered.rrvanf.s and tlxank self intimately with this subject, I 6aSnot 

Heaven that he hud at List irottliesub-trcatury * j j ^^ ^ 

bill passed anri broi.o-ht theneck^ of the nee- KECOM33END TOO STRONGLY TO VOUR CON- 

pleund.rhis Act. Mr. Y.>n Buven i? a New SIDERATION TPIE PLAST SUBMITTED BY THAT 

York Dan<!y. wiso tunes noJhii.g forlheecdn- OFFICER FOR THE ORGANIZATION of THE 

nion people, or how low tlteir wages niyy MILITIA OF THE United States." 

fall. Eut Gen. Harrieon is a farmer a labor- ^his is Mr. Van Buren's own lansjuagc, 

inff uian iiunseli. unci he never wouid attenu.t i ^ ^i .-^ t. r ^i c^ .■ ■ 

to forcesncha wieked eehenie npon you- f'''] ^^^ the lormer editor of the Sentinel 

We arc already g-toanin^r uiKierthe pre&Mue had the eilronlery to say that the Secretary's 

of hard limes; and let, the p,eo|,le !<n;cml>er plnn was not endorsed 67/ Mr. Van Buren 

that "when the righteous are in ^uUho^,■^ y the hu I made on the. Secretary's own respon- 

people rejoiee; hut when the wicked ! " y," and hundreds of the readers of 

luie, the people inourn. 1 1 .1 • 1 j i ^1 

' ' ' .1 ; aper were, doubtless, misled b}' the 

bi;re-iaced falsehood so impudently publish- 

THESTA^^D3KG A1I31Y. ^d. And what is the measure from the re- 

In Ih.e " Tennessee Sentinel" of the 29th sponsibility of which the former editor of 

Feb. ISIO, an editorial article appeared iin- the Sentinel thus deceptively and falsely at- 

der the head of "okgakizatiom of the tempted to shield the President ? What is 

MILITIA." T!ie pi'oposition of Mr. Pctn- the i)roposition for the organization of the 

SETT, — Mr. Van Ikiren's Secretary of Vv'ar militia that the President thus endorsed ? — - 

— is published and the Editormakcs the fol- At page 44 of Doc, No. 2, 26th Congress, 

lowing remark : " Thus we give the whole 1st Session, the original proposition, endors- 

paragraph which contains the proposition of ed by the President, is stated in the follovv- 

tlie Secretary lor the b.'^'ter organization of ing language by his Secretary of Vv'^ar, Mr. 

the militiaoitlie United !: 'aies — A measure, Poinsett : 

BY THE BY, WHICH HAS NOT BEEN " It is proposed to divide the United States 

ENDORSED BY MR. VAN BUREN into eight military districts, so as to have a 

BUT MADE ON THE SECRETARY'S body of twelve thousand five hundred men 

OWN RESPONSIBILITY, and submitted in aciive service \ and another of equal num- 

to Congress for their reception or rejection; ber as a reserve. This would give an arm- 

for, it will be borne in mind that the ed militia force of two hundred thousand 

President (much less th.e Secretar}?) cannot men, so drilled and stationed^ as to be 

levy an army or do any act of the kind, un- ready to take their places in the ranks in 

less the Representatives of the people clothe defence of their country whenever called up- 

him with that authority.'* on to oj^posc the enemy or repel the inva- 

We ask every candid Democrat in \V; sh- der. The age of the recruit to be from 20 

ington County to mark how- grossly the then to thirty seven. The whole term of service 

Editor of the Sentinel attempted to deceive to be eight years ; four years in the first 

its readers. He says, emphatically, that class and four in the reserve. One fourth 

the measure was not endorsed by Mr. Van part, twenty five thousand men, to leave the 

Buren, when he must have known that ^■ert'U'C ever}^ year, passing at the conclusion, 

Mr. Van Buren did endorse it. This into the reserve, and exempted from ordina- 

statcment, as to the ^..'sehood of the Sentinel, ry militia duty altogether, at the end of the 

J.S |)roved by the Message of Mr. Van lAuen second. In tliis manner twenty five thou- 



33 

sand men will be discharged from militia friends that his project above quoted only 
duty every year, and twenty five thousand contemplated a bare organization of the mi- 
fresh rfcr?///? he rcce'wcd luU) fhe service, litia. The plan mentioned by Mr, Poinsett 
It will be suflicient for all useful purposes, wns not submitted with the message, but 
that the remainder of the militfa, und-.-rcer- Congress called upon him for it and, on tho 
tain regulations provided for their govern- 20ih of March eighteen hundred and forty, 
ment, be enrolled and be mustered at long nearly four months after the measure wa$ 
and stated intervals ; for in due process of recommended, the Secretary of War, in 
X\me, near/f/ tlieicholemu.'^fi of the militia obedience to the call, addressed a letter to 
will pass through fhe first and second the Hon, R. M, T, Hunter, Speaker of tho 
classes and be either members of the active House of Representatives in which the de- 
corps, or of the reserve, or counted among tails of this monstrous measure are given, 
the exempts, who will be liable to be called in forty sections. The letter is of such great 
upon only in periods of invasion or imminent length that, it would swell this pamphlet to 
peril. The manner of enrolment, the num- too large a size to copy it here entire, but we 
ber of days of service, and the rate of com- subjoin an extract of an able article from 
pensation ought to be fixed by law : but the the XJadisonian of May 14th 1840, in which 
details had better be left subject to regula- the substance of each section is given togeth- 
tion ; a plan of which I am prepared to sub- er with the comnients of the talented editor 
mittoyou." of that paper. We ask the people to read 

In order to evade the force of this direct it, to reflect upon it, and to say whether or 
endorsement, some of '.he Democrats say that not they are willing, under the Sub Treasu- 
itwasMr. Von Buren's duty as President ry system, to vest Mr. Van Buren or any 
to present the proposition of the Secretary to other President with the control of one bun- 
Congress, no matter whether he approved of dred thousand office holders and the whole 
it or not. This arg-umeut is in direct oppo- revenue of the United States, and to give 
sition to the doctrine of Gen, Jackson who him or any other man the command of 200, 
contended that he was responsible for the 000 soldiers— selected in a manner similar 
acts of all the Secretaries composing his cab- to those of Cromwell and Napoleon— with 
inet, which, as he said, ought to be a unit, whom and the public money Congress could 
Butwhat did Mr. Van Buren mean when he be turned out of doors and a crown placed 
said/ cannot reco?n?nend too strongly to upon his head. Under the. 14th section, the 
your consideration the proposition of "" the mass of the militia are divided into districts. 
Secretary of War ? Walker defines the The seventh district is to be composed of the 
meaning of the word recommend in his Die- States of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana 
tionary. He says it means— "to praise to and Tennessee, and of course, the men would 
another ; to make acceptable ; to use one's have to be called into service at some central 
interest with another in favor of a third per- point in the district. How would the gal- 
son; to commit with i)rayers." Mr. Van lant militia of Tennessee relish the idea of 
Buren therefore, when he recommended the being forced to march twiceai/ear.'ma. 
proposition, praised it— wished to make it time of profound peace, to New Orleans, 
acceptable— used his interest in favor of it Mobile, or such other point in the District 
and committed it with prayers for its safety as might be pleasing to the President? Or 
to the consideration of Congress. 'J'he con- how would they like to be conipelled to 
temptible quibbling of the Democratic party furnish a horse and their own equipage— o^ 
is thus clearly exposed and the proposition their own expense— and be called from their 
for a standing army is shown to be endorsed families and homes twice a year to figure 
by the President. in camps and flourish upon parades for tha 

■'it was contended by Mr. Van Buren's gratification of Dandy Martin or his puissant 



34 



Secretary of War? And what would he the 
effpot upon the morals of the country if this 
rKiioiis stanuing army should he effected hy 

Fi'om tiiJ" IVIiidisnniiin. 

J\iK. POi.'VSEVrS 20(U!nO U. STATES 
miLiriA FOKCE. 

We puhlish to-day the notahic scheme of 
the Secretary of War, as detailed by himself 
♦o Cor.irress. We propose to analyze it 
more fully than we have yet done, and sh.ow 
it t) be a most darinp;, dangerous and uncon- 
stitutional project- No man of discernment 
can examine it without feeling it to he the 
duty of a patriot to souud the alarm and 
aro'.!.-ethe people. \Ve repeat this now, be- 
tnu^e we see the monster beginning to stir 

tIk- Senate. 

From the details of the plan we gather the 
following recommendations: 

1st. sec. Every free able bodied white 
male citizen of the several States between 
the ages of 20 and 45 shall be enrolled in the 
militia of the United States, and within 
three months after, shall arm himself at 

HIS OWN EXPENSE. 

2d sec. All office holders in any way 
connected with the Federal Government 
shall be exempt. 

3d sec. Citizens thus enrolled to consti- 
tute the first class, to be denominated the 
JWass, audio be divided and organized. 

4th. Each regiment shall furnish two 
companies of light infantry or riflemen — 
each division one company of artillery and 
one of horse, who shall be clothed and equip- 
ped AT THEIR ow^N EXPENSE. The officers 
to hfive a cut a jid thrust sword. Officers of 
c-'v^lry and dragoons to furnish themselves 
'vii/r. horses, saddles, bridles, breast plates, 
flp'^ "., pistols, sabre, crupper, &c. &c. 

r.' 1. Proposes colors and martial music. 

oth. ^8. record of the men \oho kept in 
the Adjutant General's office of each Slate, 
&c. 

7fh. An Adjutant General shall be ap- 
pointed in each State, with colonels rank, to 
distribute orders, attend reviews, perfect the 
discipline, explain the principles of returns, 
reports, and to report to head quarters, &c. 



and finally to make returns to the Secretary 
of War, who shall give the proper directions 
as to how they shall be done. 

Sth. Defines the dut}' of Brigade Inspec- 
tors. 

9th. Appoints a Quartermaster General 
in each Slate. 

10th. Witliin months after the adop- 
tion of the plan, 100,000 men to be drafted 
for active service., to be denominated the ac- 
tive or moveable force. 

mil. Said force shall be organized and 
held to service foryb/;r years; one-fourth 
going out annua!l3\ 

12th. 'I'hcre sball be a third class denom- 
inated the reserve or sedentary force — to be 
composed of those who have gone through 
the active \)Yohd.\ion — to continue thus sub- 
ject four years, and to be subject to no fur- 
ther military duty, unless in case of invasion 
or a levee en tnasse. 

loth. The deficit occasioned by the dis- 
charge to be made up by draught on the mass 

13th, The "territory of the U. States" 
shall be divided into ten districts. 

15th. Order of precedence shall be as fol- 
lows : 1. Troops of the United States. 2. 
Militia of the United States in this order, viz: 
1. The active force. 2, The sedentary force. 
3. The mass. 

16th. Officers of the militia to he appoin- 
ted as the State Legislature shall direct. 

17. The President of the United States 
may call out the 100.000 men twice a year, 
and while out and including the time when 
going to and returning from the place of ren- 
dezvous, they shall be deemed 2?z the service 
of the United States, and he subject to 
such regulations as the President may 
thinh proper to adopt for their instruction 
discipline, and improvement in military 
knowledge. 

ISth. In case of invasion or insurrection 
the President may call forth such numbers 
as he may judge sufficient. 

19th. When the U. S. laws shall be op- 
jiosed, or their execution obstructed, the 
President may call forth sufficient of the 
militia to cause the laws to be executed- 



35 



20th. The inililia of the 6'. ,S'. ,\vhea in 
service, shall be subject to the same rules 
and articles of war as the troops of the U. 
States. 

21st Ev<iry citizen enrolled in the mi- 
litia sliall be conslanti)! provided with 
arms, &c. 

22d. The U. S. militia, when called into 
service, shall be paid, like the infantry of the 
U. Slates. 

23. Officers of mounted companies to re- 
ceive forag;e for horses. 

24th. Those who lose a horse in service 
or battle to be paid for the same, not more 
than $120. 

25lh. Militia to receive pay while trav- 
elling or being transported in the service of 
the U. S. 

26th. The widows of those dying in service 
to recieve half pay for five years. 

27th. Courts martial to be composed of 
military officers only. 

28lh. If a citizen fail to march when or- 
dered by the President, he shall be fined not 
less than half a month's pay, nor more than 
three months' pay, (not less than ^5 nor 
more thin S30,) which fine, contrary to the 
intention of the Constitution, is to be inflict- 
ed by a court martial, and all are liable to be 
imprisoned on failure to pay the fines im- 
posed. 

29th. The court martial is to certify the 
fines to the U. S. marshal, and he to collect 
them by the summary process of distress ; 
and if the citizen have no property, he 
must suffisr imprisonment "until the fines 
are paid !'* 

30th. The Marslials to make a return of 
the levy of fines to the Adjutant General, and 
receive a commission of five per cent. ; and 
if they fail to make return, the Adjutant 
General is to inform the Solicitor of the 
Treasury of the United States, who should 
instruct the United States Attorneys to 
proceed against said Marshals by attach- 
ment. 

31st. Marshals to have the same force as 
fiheriffs. 

32d, Money collected for fines to be 



applied to the payment of militia expenses^ 

33d and 3 1, 33. The President shall ap- 
point an Adjutant General of the U, S, ivli • 
\\U3^, to be attached to the War Depart- 
ment, to receive S3, 000 per annum, and 
have two Clerks, with salaries at the discre- 
tion of the Secretary of War. 

36th. The President to select depots of 
arms, &c. 

Such are the principal subjects of the jj.o- 
visions contained in Mr. Poinsett's plan, 
and recommended hy the President. 

Its unconstitutionality consists in propo- 
sing to place the Militia in certain contingen- 
cies under the orders and directions of the 
Federal Executive, thereby stripping the 
States of their authority to train the militia, 
— in putting the goods and chatties, and the 
personal liberties of free citizens under the 
control of the U. S. Marshals, — and in u- 
surping the power of imposing penalties on 
citizens of the States, and of enforcing them 
by courts martial. 

Its tyranny consists in the confiscation 
and imprisonment of those conscript citizens, 
who should either refuse or be unable, by 
reason of poverty or otherwise, to comply 
with the requsitions of the Executive. 

Its danger lies in giving such a power to 
the President as would enable him to call 
forth a standing army, in fact, of 100,000 
men, in the pay of the government, segre- 
gated from the great body of the people, 
and rec[uired, possibly to vote or fight, as 
the Executive shoula desire, or be dragged 
from State to State, to suit political exigen 
cies. 

We can see no limit to the proportions 
of this monster, and have no guarantee in the 
character of our present rulers, or in those 
whom they might appoint lo succeed them, 
that the proposed system would not over- 
throw the liberties of the country, and estab- 
lish a military despotism upon their ruins. 

The following notes will show by what 
authority we are supported in the estimate 
we have formed of tliis notable scheme. 

The only authority conferred on the 
General Government by the Constitution in 



36 



l^eiation to the militia is contained in the Ibl- 
lowing sentences : 

" To provide for calling forth the militia 
to execute the laws of the Union, suppress in- 
sur.'^j-'iions, and repel invasions."' 

" To provide for organizing, arming, and 
disciplining the militia, and for governing 
such parts of them as may be employed in 
the service of the United States, reserving 
to the States respectively the appointment 
of the officers, and the authority of training 
the militia according to t!ie fWscipline pre- 
scribed by Congress." — (Con. Sec. 8 ) 

When that provision was befo)-e the Con- 
vention which formed the Constitution, Mr. 
Sherman moved to s'rike out the ln.«t mem- 
ber, "and authority of trainin*;;," &c. 

Mr. King, by way of exj)hination, said 
that by organizing, the committee meant, 
proportioning tlie officers and men, hv arm- 
ing, specifying the kidd, size, and calibre of 
arms, and by disciplining, [jrescribing the 
manual exercise, evolutions, &c. 

Mr. Sherman withdrew his motion. 

Mr. Gerry said he had as lief let tlie citi- 
zens of Massachusetts be disarmed, as to take 
the command from the States, and subject 
them to the (jcneral Government. It would 
be rejected as a system of desjwtisrn: 

Mr. Madison observed, that '^arming" 
as explained, did not extend to furnishing 
arms ; nor the term ''disciplining," to pen- 
alties and courts martial for enforcing them. 

Dickinson, Gerry, Sherman, and other 
Republicans expresecl great jealousy of tlie 
power of the General Government, and 
warmly urged the importance of leaving the 
militia almost wholly to the States. Mr. 
Dickinson declared that the States never 
would, nor ought to, give up all authority 
over the militia, Mr. Sherman said that if 
the militia officers were to be under the con- 
trol of the General Government, men of dis- 
cernment would sound the alarm to arouse 
tlie people. 

GEN. HARRISON AND MR. \AN BU- 
REN CONTRASTED. 

It has been shown that Gen. Harrison's 



whole life has been devoted to the service oi 
his country and to the welfare of his fellow- 
men — in war and peace. No one pretends 
that Mr. Van Buren ever attempted to serve 
his fountry during the v.-ar. So far from 
doing so, it is believed that his sentiments 
were in unison with those of the Hartford 
Convention Federalists who opposed the war 
until he found that the war was likely to be- 
come popular, but then he jumped into the 
very middle of the current as he did after 
Gen. Jackson's election. It is well known 
that Mr. Van Buren was a member of the 
Crawford Caucus and opposed Gen. Jack- 
son — and afterwards whipped into the 
Jackson ranks. So, Mr. Van Buren sup- 
ported De Witt Clinton, the Anti-war Can- 
didate, for the Presidency, in opposition to 
Mr. I'.ladison, the War Candidate, but when 
he found the war wns popular changed his 
coat and became its advocate. It ai:)pcars 
from the Senate Journal of New York of 
Nov. 9th. 1S12 that the Senate, on that day 
proceeded to nominate twenty-nine electors 
of President and Vice President of the U. 
States. Whereupon, Martin Van Bureft 
nominated twenty-nine gentlemen, to wit: 
Joseph C. Yates. Simeon Dewitt, and o- 
thers who were the anti-war or Clintonian 
Candidates, while Sylvester Bering, Isaac 
Ogden and otiiejs were the Mauisonian or 
war Candidates for electors of President and 
Vice President. 

But this is not all. While Gen. Harri- 
son has fought the battles of his country and 
has always shown that he was a friend to the 
people, Mr. Van Buren has shown that he 
is an aristocrat in ])rinciple and an enemy to 
the liberties of his country. At pages 134, 
ISO, 190, 191, 201, 20:3, .329, 364, and 
376 of the Debates of the New York Con- 
vention in 1821, the whole proceedings in 
regard to the right of sulfrage will be seen, 
and that Mr. Van Buren voted for a law by 
which a free negro worth two hundred and 
fifty dollars would be allowed to vote, while 
an old Revolutionary soldier would be de- 
prived of his vote if destitute of this prop- 
erty qualification. Mr. Van Buren was 
told in debate by Gen. Root that this would 



37 



be the case but with an unfeeling; sneer at 
the fewness of the RevoUitionary. Soldiers 
who were living he gave this obnoxious 
vote. 

But what did the London St. James 
Chronicle say of Mr. Van Buren, after he 
was elected President. Let every freeman 
read what a Foreign Editor says: — "The 
people of England niny now learn a lesson 
of Republicanism from its most brilliant spe- 
cimen, the Gov. of the United States. It 
has proved a splendid failure. VAN BU- 
REN, who learned many useful tactics in 
this country, will bring the democrats 
round to a rational system of MON- 
ARCHICAL OBEDIENCE. Democra- 
cy is the best and most powerful lever in 
the world, if pressed judiciously. Monar- 
chies have been upset by it but a great many 
more have been established by it. Van 
Buren is said to be a non-talented man, but 
he knows human nature; he knows his coun- 
trymen too and has laid tf>e finest train 
that ever was conceived. He has prevail- 
ed upon the popular old President to set an 
example of absoluteism and independence 
which perhaps no other man in that country 
would have allcmpted. He will uUimately, 
mildly and cautiously, but having tb.e sup- 
port of the Democracy he will undoubtedly 
succeed i n bringing the whole Union under 
the sway of a few enlarged and cultivated 
minds which are the source of stability and 
order in every country. Tlie people cannot 
govern themselves any more than a public 
school can govern itself without the super- 
intendence of A MASTER. It must be 
merely an increased round of clamor and 
contention. We have now more hope for 
America than ever we had since her declara- 
tion of Independence. Mr. Martin Van 
Buren has succeeded in running down a Na- 
tional Bank wJiich was the most formidable 
obstacle to executive control and has collect- 
ed in his hands the reins of a good team of 
State Institutions which will draw well to- 
gether and bear him upwards like the steeds 
of Pegasus. The Republic of the United 
States like that of Venice will become an 
oligarchy, but it will be, unless we are mis- 



taken, a more enduring one. It will not, 
like Venice, become a splendid ruin of pal- 
aces; for it lias arterial springs of commer- 
cial pro-^pcrity which nothing can paralyse 
and whicii do not depend upon the diseased 

stomachs of Europe for a healthy action 

For fifty years or more, it will be a clever 
oligarchy and then the people will wisely 
and cheerfully consent to its becoming a lim- 
ited monarchy. Va)i Buren, ive believe, 
has a son or two and be wiU probahlxj ES- 
TABLISH A SOUND AND USEFUL 
DYNASl'Y FOii THAT GREAT CON- 
TINENT." 

Such was the prediction of a British Ed- 
itor in relation to Mr. Van Buren's last e- 
lection. And has not that projihecy in many 
respects been fulfilled? Cannot any unpre- 
judiced man see that under the guise of de- 
mocracy Mr. Van Buren and many of the 
leaders of his party conceal more aristocra- 
cy than any other men in the United States? 
Look at his English Coach, drawn by for- 
eign horses and driven by foreign servants. 
But his friends say that those who make this 
objection dress in English broadcloth. But 
if men of all parties do dress in Engliah 
br >ad eloth who but iVfr. Van Buren has in 
troduced into the U. S. the royal fashion of 
dressing hisservants in livery. Mr. V. Buren 
as minister to England, associated with the 
noblemen of that country and if he would 
try to imitate them in the peculiar mode of 
dressing his servants, is it at all impossible 
that the British editor was mistaken when 
he supposed that Mr. Van Buren would try 
to "bring the Democrats round to a rational 
system of monarchical obedience?" Does 
not his strong argument in favor of a Sub 
Treasury — that it has been adopted in twen- 
ty two out of twenty seven foreign govern- 
ments — look like the British editor did not 
make a bad guess as to his course? Has 
not Mr. Van Buren already sent two of his 
sons to England to learn the same monar- 
chical principles which their father learned 
in that country? Did he not write a very 
anti-republican letter to the Pope of Rome? 
Has he not said, in his last message to Con- 
gress, that the exenitivt is a eoinponent 



38 



part of the legisluli 



(Ive power, when the ve- Fi'om 4th Murch, 17SD, to3lstDec. 

ry first line of the Constitution declares that *J^^' l,919r589, 5*2 

the legislative power shall be vested in the V'^^n ?'7m'^^'^' .^^ 

Senate and House of Representatives? Has ItW 3'50o'54r' r" 

he not for the fourth time pressed the Sub 1795,' 4.3o().65b' 01 

Treasury upon Congress in the hope that he 1796. 2,53-2,y30, 40 

can get the absolute control of all the public • 

money? Has he not, in his last message •« «t"l '» <-<en Washing- 

, n 1 1 i\T o • ..5 r. tons Adtnuikstration iS 1 5,892,198 55 

to Congress, endorsed Mr. Poinsett's Re- Average each year, >S1,986.524 82 

port recommending a standing army oi two j-n- o 0T4 "lOO «)r 

hundred thousand men? Is he notgras])ing 1798 4'623'223 54 

at unlimited power and does he not seek to 1799, 6,481,166 72 

change our free government into a monarchy J8{i0, 7,411,369 97 

as the British editor predicted? ' ,„ . ,, „ , . . , 

y . ., , . , , . Total, in Mv. John Adam s 

Let the people examine these things.— Administration, 821,450.35119 

let Van Buren's friends show how he has Average each year, 5 362,687 79 

ever served the people — what battles he 1801, 4,181,669 90 

fought in — what great public measure he ev- 1802, 4,737,079 91 

er advocated. And let every freeman de *^'*'^' 4,002,824 24 

lermine whom he will support— M////;i V^l^J rQ-'-'S? l\ 

rr n n i i . 180o, ,b,3o/,234 62 

yan JJuren, the man who has never served ij^OG^ 6 080 209 36 

his country — the man who is trying to 1807, 4'984.'572 86 

change the government and is too proud to 1808, 6,504,338 85 

live according to the manners of his own . . ' 

nrMi.,f..TT,-,-,cj„ .^,. A,V»T X . A ,. IT lA . , 4i Total in .l/r. .TelTerson's 

countrymen;or William 11. Harrison, the . , ■ . , a\ rtncxn^a nc 

XT 1 o/ . .1 » /- • 1 Aihninistialion, 41,300,788 66 

Hero and Statesman, the poor man's friend, Average each year, 5,162-598 58 

the advocate of theold pensioners, and of the jg(j«) 7414 672 14 

widow and orphan — the plain, republican 1810," 5^311,082 28 

farmer — the honest man — the independent 1811, 5.592.604 86 

politician and the true patriot who loved his 1812, 17,829.498 ^0 

country and showed that love where blows ^^u of/i|'^'^^^ 3h 

fell hot and thick — where brave men fought iyj.3' 26'95.3'571 00 

and fell, and where the stoutest hearts were 1816^ 23^373^432 58 

"Jo battle's magnificently stern array." '^^^^J '" i^^'' {'I''^''^^^' ^ 

° J J Adminisralion, 144,604.439 86 

— Average each year, 18,085,617 48 

EXPENSES OF THE GOVERNMENT. 1817, 15,454,609 92 

The editor of the Madisonian published a ^'l/^' i6%^(5o 3/3* 44 

statement of the public expenditures, in 1820, 13,134,540 57 

«rK,-ol. t.o «nv« 1*^'' 10,723,479 07 

which he sa^s: ^^^,^ 9.827.513 51 

The following table is made up from a 1823, 9.884,154 59 

letter of the Secretary of the Treasury of 1^24, 15.339,134 71 

the United States, to the Committe on Re- 1 ■ ni nt ' 

trenchment (April 9th, 1830,) and from pub- ^Td.ni'nfstnUion"''"' ' 104.463.400 59 

he documents smce that date. Average each year, 13,057,925 07 

E^peyises of the Government from the 4th 1825, 11,490,459 fg 

March, 1789, to 3lst. Dec. 18,39. 1826, 13,063,316 27 



3$) 



1S27. 12.653,000 f>5 
IS'JS, ia.2})G041 45 



Total, in Mr. J. Q. Adams's 

Administralion 50,501,914 CI 

Avera^fe each year, 12,625,478 5'-* 

1829, 12.060.160 00 

1830, 13,229.533 00 

1831, 13,864.807 00 

1832, 16.516.388 00 

1833, 22 713,756 00 

1834, 18.425.417 00 
1825. 17.514,950 00 
1836, 30,868,164 00 

Tolal in (jlcn. Jaclison's 

A(linii.i»=tiation, 145,702,735 00 

Average in each year, 18.224.091 88 

18;J7. 49.151.745 00 

1838. 40.427.218 00 

1839, 31. SI 5.000 00 

Total in Mr. Van Buren's 

3fir.*t years 111,406,033 07 

Averajre for eaoh ypar.37, 135,654 33 
Population of the United 

States in 1790, 

isoo, 

1810, 
1820. 
1830 



3,929.827 
5,3<»5.925 
7.289.314 
9.638.131 
. . 12 856.407 
Supposed to be about 1840, 17,0{H),000 



From the Tennessee Whipr of March 5. 

MR. VA\ BURENS LETTER TO THE 

POPE. 

We embrnre tliis opportunity of laying- before 
our numei'ons readers, the letter of Martin Van 
Buren to one of the subordinates of Rome, in- 
tended expressly for the eye of his holiness. — 
This extraordinary letter refers to others — to a 
private correspondence, which had been «'ar- 
ried on between the Pope and IMr. Van Buren, 
and which to this day, has never been publish- 
ed, for reasons obvious to every reflecting 
mirxl, anfl no doubt satisfactory to the parties. 
For the first time in the history of this gov- 
ernment, we see a man seeking the highest of- 
fice in the country, carrying his electioneering 
intrigues before the Pope of Rome, and wri- 
ting him a most fulsotne letter— calls him 'Ho- 
ly Father.^ congratulates him on his accession 
to the jT/arrfiT— gives him to undersland that he 
is his devoted friend— that his church finds 
favor in these United States— and that the dog- 
mas of his church will be tolerated to the ful- 
lest extent in this country ! Oh ! my country, 
art thou fallen so low, and nrt thou so debnfjed, 



tlint thy Chief Mngistrnte. will supplicate n 
foreign tyrant, for the sole purpose of obtain- 
ing the votes of his minions within thy bor- 
ders? And will our people any longer sup- 
port this cryin<r sycophant? L>o tliey not see 
theobjectof his f?ervile devotion to a corrupt 

« espot. Washington, July 20. 1830. 

Your letters of the lllli April, and 5th of 
I\5ay, the Hist anticipating the (avorai>le sen- 
timents of his Holiness the Pope, towards the 
Government and the people of the United 
States, and the last confirming your anticipa- 
tions, have been received at tliis department, 
and submitted to the President; by whom I am 
directed to tender his Holiness tbroucii the 
same channel, an assurance ofthe satisfaction.^ 
which he derives from his communication of 
the FRAMv AXD LIBKRAL OPINION 
ENTERTAINED BY THE APOSTOLIC 
^EE towards the (Jovernment and the peo- 
ple, and ofthe policy which you likewise state 
his Holiness has adopted: and which is SO 
WORTHY THE HEAD OF A GREAT 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH— assiduous to culti- 
vate in his intercourse with foreign nations, 
the relations of unity and good will, ami sedu- 
lously to abstain from all interference in their 
occasional dilficulties with each other, except 
with that benignant view oCelfecting reconcili- 
ation between them. 

You will accordingly seek an early oppor- 
tunity to make known to the Pope in terms and 
manner best suited to the occasion, the light in 
which the President views the communication 
referred to, and likewise you will assure him 
that the President reciprocates in their full ex- 
tent and spirit the friendiv and liberal senti- 
ments entertained by his Holiness, towards the 
government ofthe Apostolic See, and the peo-^ 
pie of the Slate and the Church; and it is the 
President's wish that you should, upon the 
same occasion olfcr his congratulations to the 
Holy Falhcr upon his recent succession to the 
TmVr/, notfiom any hereditary claims on his 
part, but from n preponderating influence which 
a just estimation of his talents nnd private vir- 
tues naturally had upon the enlightened coun- 
cils by which that high distinction was con- 
ferred: and which afibrds the pledge that his 
pontificate will be n safe and a beneficent one. 
You will take care likewise, to assure his 
Holiness, in reference to the paternal solici- 
tude which he (expressed in behaif of the Ro- 
man Catholics of the United States, that all 
our citizens professing that religion stand up- 
on the elevated ground which citizens of other 
religious denominations occupy, in regard to 
the rights of conscience— that of perfect liber- 



fy con-trailifctiiiguishcti fi-oni toleration: tliat 
they enjoy an entire exreption from coercion 
in every possible shnpe n|)on the score oi' re- 
Ijo^ioii'* fnilii. and that they are free, in cointion 
vvitli tlieir fellow <it!i:ens oftjl! other sheets, to 
adhere to or adof)t the creeds, and priictice 
the worship bef-t adapted to their reason an<l 
prejndices!, and fhnt there exi:?ts a perfect uni- 
ty of faith in the United States amonfr reliixion- 
ists ofall |)rofc?6-ions, as to the wisdom and 
policy of that cardinal feature ofall our consti- 
tutions and forms of firovernment, those of the 
United States and the st-parate States of the 
Union, by w!)ich this inestimable rip^ht is le- 
eoornize<i, and the enjoyment of it inviolably 
secured. 

BIARTIN VAN BUREW. 

The undersigned members of the Whig 
Central Committee of Washington county 
respectfidly present the foregoing "FACTS 
FOR THE PEOPLE" to the candid con- 
sideration of their fellow-citizens.* 
T. A. R. NELSON, W. S. GILLESPIE, 
S. J. W. LUCKY, W. A1 KINSON, 
W. G. BRO WN LOW J. BOYD, 
SAM. GREER, L. C. HOSS, 
J AS. H. JONES, J. KEYS, 
M. CLEM, H. STEPHENSON, 

SIMON HANCOCK,JAS. BROWN, 
S. G. CHESTER, J. NAFF, 



PETER MILLER, T. R. RUSSEL, 
W. WILLIAMS, WM.G. GAMMON. 
.T.J.WILLIAMS, .TAS. H. VANCE, 
E. EMBREE, S. CUNNINGHAM. 

Jonesboro' June 1st, 1S40. 

'*The object aiined at in the preparation of 
the foregoing pages has been to present in 
one publication a condensed view ol the va- 
rious political topics of the day, both as 
they are connected witli the personal char 
acter of Gen. Harrison and as they relate to 
the present Administration. Few docu- 
ments are inserted at length, as this would 
have swelled the publication to an impracti- 
cable size; but wherever a fact is asserted, 
the authority upon which the assertion is 
made is given. Nothing more could be 
done in a pamphlet only designed to be a 
correct synopsis. But all the documents, 
not othei'vvise referred to in the foregoing 
pages, it is believed have been published in 
exlensoin the Tennessee Whig, East Ten- 
nessean, Knoxville Times, Republican 
Banner, Spirit of '76, Nashville Whig, 
Lynchbui-g Virginian, Richmond Whig, 
Madisonian, and National Intelligencer. — 
The Compiler has been particularly aided by 
the lucid arrangement and extensive research 
of the^'Spiritof '70." 



